Empower Advisory Group LLC Has $297,000 Position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Empower Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,823 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Clorox were worth $297,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of CLX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Clorox by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,277,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,339,150,000 after purchasing an additional 48,632 shares during the period. Nuance Investments LLC raised its holdings in Clorox by 150.6% in the second quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,597,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,035,000 after purchasing an additional 960,094 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Clorox by 2.2% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,492,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $237,372,000 after purchasing an additional 31,510 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Clorox by 14.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 961,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,200,000 after acquiring an additional 120,716 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Clorox by 26.5% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 882,526 shares of the company’s stock worth $135,099,000 after acquiring an additional 184,847 shares during the period. 78.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CLX shares. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Clorox from $153.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Clorox from $137.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Clorox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $174.00 to $187.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Clorox to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Clorox from $144.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Clorox presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $155.00.

Clorox Price Performance

Shares of Clorox stock opened at $167.69 on Friday. The Clorox Company has a twelve month low of $127.60 and a twelve month high of $169.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.08. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $162.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $147.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.41.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Clorox had a net margin of 4.78% and a return on equity of 316.08%. The business’s revenue was up 27.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.49 EPS. Analysts forecast that The Clorox Company will post 6.85 EPS for the current year.

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 23rd were given a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 23rd. Clorox’s payout ratio is presently 170.04%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Angela C. Hilt sold 1,733 shares of Clorox stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 13,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,229,719.92. The trade was a 11.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

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.