Advisors Preferred LLC Purchases Shares of 2,640 The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Advisors Preferred LLC purchased a new stake in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,640 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $427,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Clorox by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,182,109 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,332,947,000 after buying an additional 245,525 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its position in shares of Clorox by 46,877.8% during the third 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Clorox by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,028,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $491,713,000 after buying an additional 33,970 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Clorox by 1.7% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,334,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $380,370,000 after buying an additional 37,967 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Clorox by 2.2% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,492,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $237,372,000 after buying an additional 31,510 shares during the period. 78.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CLX. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Clorox from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Clorox in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Clorox from $171.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Clorox from $145.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Clorox from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $170.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $158.21.

Clorox Stock Up 0.6 %

CLX opened at $148.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.52, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company’s 50-day moving average is $161.06 and its 200 day moving average is $158.70. The Clorox Company has a fifty-two week low of $127.60 and a fifty-two week high of $171.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.58, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.42.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.16. Clorox had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 316.87%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.16 EPS. Research analysts expect that The Clorox Company will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th. Clorox’s payout ratio is currently 133.33%.

Clorox 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.