Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $111.56.

Several brokerages have recently commented on CHD. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Church & Dwight from $107.00 to $106.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Church & Dwight from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Church & Dwight from $128.00 to $126.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Barclays raised their target price on Church & Dwight from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Church & Dwight in a research note on Monday, February 3rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Rene Hemsey sold 11,060 shares of Church & Dwight stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.98, for a total value of $1,216,378.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $707,941.26. The trade was a 63.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Maynadier Patrick D. De sold 54,510 shares of Church & Dwight stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.98, for a total transaction of $6,322,069.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,497 shares in the company, valued at $1,217,442.06. This trade represents a 83.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 65,570 shares of company stock valued at $7,538,449 in the last 90 days. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Church & Dwight

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Church & Dwight by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,691,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,213,661,000 after purchasing an additional 193,602 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Church & Dwight by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,116,334 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,373,542,000 after purchasing an additional 969,006 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Church & Dwight by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,016,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $839,472,000 after buying an additional 429,863 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Church & Dwight by 19.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,336,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $768,157,000 after buying an additional 1,190,154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Church & Dwight by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,915,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $617,794,000 after acquiring an additional 148,234 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.60% of the company’s stock.

Church & Dwight Stock Performance

Shares of Church & Dwight stock opened at $107.04 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $107.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.88. Church & Dwight has a 1-year low of $96.35 and a 1-year high of $116.46. The company has a market cap of $26.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.16, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57.

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77. Church & Dwight had a return on equity of 20.03% and a net margin of 9.58%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Church & Dwight will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Church & Dwight Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.295 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.10%. This is a boost from Church & Dwight’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Church & Dwight’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.79%.

About Church & Dwight

Church & Dwight Co, Inc engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of household, personal care, and specialty products. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International, Specialty Products Division (SPD), and Corporate. The Consumer Domestic segment offers household products, such as laundry detergents, fabric softener sheets, cat litter, household cleaning products, and personal care products including antiperspirants, oral care products, depilatories, reproductive health products, oral analgesics, nasal saline moisturizers, and dietary supplements.