Short Interest in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) Drops By 10.6%

The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 3,360,000 shares, a drop of 10.6% from the November 15th total of 3,760,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,150,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Clorox

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CLX. State Street Corp raised its stake in Clorox by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,182,109 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,332,947,000 after buying an additional 245,525 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of Clorox by 46,877.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 4,500,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $733,095,000 after buying an additional 4,490,421 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Clorox by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,028,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $491,713,000 after purchasing an additional 33,970 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in Clorox by 1.7% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,334,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $380,370,000 after buying an additional 37,967 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC grew its position in Clorox by 150.6% during the 2nd quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,597,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,035,000 after acquiring an additional 960,094 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.53% of the company’s stock.

Clorox Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:CLX traded down $1.09 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $163.32. 1,095,319 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,229,642. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.08. Clorox has a 52 week low of $127.60 and a 52 week high of $171.37. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $163.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $152.34. The company has a market cap of $20.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.42.

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

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.99%. Clorox’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 170.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CLX has been the subject of several recent research reports. BNP Paribas raised Clorox to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Clorox from $148.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Clorox from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Clorox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $174.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Clorox from $137.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $155.38.

Clorox Company Profile

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.