The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) Plans $1.22 Quarterly Dividend

The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid a dividend of 1.22 per share on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.90%.

Clorox has raised its dividend by an average of 3.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 47 consecutive years. Clorox has a payout ratio of 71.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Clorox to earn $7.17 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 68.1%.

Clorox Price Performance

CLX traded down $0.94 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $168.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,075,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,242,177. Clorox has a twelve month low of $127.60 and a twelve month high of $169.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.08. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $162.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $147.73.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.50. Clorox had a net margin of 4.78% and a return on equity of 316.08%. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.49 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 27.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Clorox will post 6.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Angela C. Hilt sold 1,733 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.52, for a total transaction of $286,846.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 13,471 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,229,719.92. This represents a 11.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on CLX shares. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Clorox from $140.00 to $139.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Clorox from $144.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Clorox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $174.00 to $187.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Clorox from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Clorox from $153.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Clorox has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $155.00.

About Clorox

The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment offers cleaning products, such as laundry additives and home care products primarily under the Clorox, Clorox2, Scentiva, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Tilex, and Formula 409 brands; professional cleaning and disinfecting products under the CloroxPro and Clorox Healthcare brands; professional food service products under the Hidden Valley brand; and vitamins, minerals and supplement products under the RenewLife, Natural Vitality, NeoCell, and Rainbow Light brands in the United States.