Patton Fund Management Inc. Buys Shares of 16,619 The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Patton Fund Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 16,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,643,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Clorox by 1.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,685,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,041,661,000 after acquiring an additional 185,012 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Clorox by 2.1% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,463,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,497,427,000 after buying an additional 195,348 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Clorox by 3.8% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,725,410 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,349,000 after buying an additional 100,920 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Clorox by 5.1% during the first quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,583,847 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,878,000 after acquiring an additional 124,644 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Clorox by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,931,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $268,515,000 after acquiring an additional 21,058 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on CLX shares. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Clorox from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Clorox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 8th. DA Davidson lowered their target price on Clorox from $176.00 to $152.00 in a report on Tuesday. Atlantic Securities raised Clorox from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Clorox from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $147.77.

Clorox Stock Down 2.0 %

Clorox stock traded down $2.88 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $139.82. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 361,137 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,201,548. The company has a market cap of $17.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 117.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.38. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $155.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $157.93. The Clorox Company has a fifty-two week low of $124.58 and a fifty-two week high of $178.21.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The company reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. Clorox had a return on equity of 163.56% and a net margin of 2.02%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that The Clorox Company will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 9th were issued a $1.20 dividend. This is a boost from Clorox’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 8th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. Clorox’s dividend payout ratio is presently 403.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Clorox news, CFO Kevin B. Jacobsen sold 3,346 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.82, for a total value of $538,103.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 23,224 shares in the company, valued at $3,734,883.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.