Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) to Repurchase $5.00 billion in Shares

Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, March 20th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $5.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 6.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CL. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Colgate-Palmolive from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $97.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Colgate-Palmolive from $121.00 to $112.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.72.

Colgate-Palmolive Price Performance

NYSE:CL opened at $90.30 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.65, a PEG ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.40, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $94.18. Colgate-Palmolive has a 1 year low of $85.32 and a 1 year high of $109.30.

Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.01. Colgate-Palmolive had a return on equity of 477.77% and a net margin of 14.38%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.87 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Colgate-Palmolive will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

Colgate-Palmolive Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 17th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This is a positive change from Colgate-Palmolive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Colgate-Palmolive’s dividend payout ratio is 56.82%.

Colgate-Palmolive Company Profile

Colgate-Palmolive Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells consumer products in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Oral, Personal and Home Care; and Pet Nutrition. The Oral, Personal and Home Care segment offers toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, bar and liquid hand soaps, shower gels, shampoos, conditioners, deodorants and antiperspirants, skin health products, dishwashing detergents, fabric conditioners, household cleaners, and other related items.