Clorox stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
May 20th, 2019
2
The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Cleaning, Household, Lifestyle, and International.
Should I buy Clorox stock?
Trading stocks requires experience and discipline, and your buying and selling decisions must come following a methodology. Trading strategies are meant for helping you in the decision process of what stocks to pick and when is the best time to buy them. At Stocks2.com, we use very simple but trusted and powerful trend following trading strategies. Simple things usually work the best.Currently, Clorox stock doesn't match any of these trading strategies, so our recommendation is not to buy.
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | No |
| New 52 week high | No |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Clorox stock a buy?
Banks and financial institutions publish stock ratings everyday.
At Stocks2.com, we gathered 8 ratings published for CLX stock in the last 30 days. The general sentiment of these ratings is bearish for CLX stock, with 2 negative ratings.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-5-2 | Wells Fargo & Co | Market Perform | Market Perform |
| 2019-5-2 | Deutsche Bank | Sell | Hold |
| 2019-5-2 | Citigroup | Neutral | Neutral |
| 2019-5-2 | Bank of America | Neutral | Neutral |
| 2019-4-8 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Neutral | Underweight |
| 2019-3-6 | Credit Suisse Group | n/a | Underperform |
| 2019-2-6 | Barclays | n/a | Hold |
| 2019-2-5 | BMO Capital Markets | n/a | Outperform |
Clorox stock analysis
Daily outlook
Clorox shares stayed constant -0.22% to $146.72 today.
Shares of Clorox ended today at $146.72 and stayed constant a lame -0.22%. Since price and SMA200d lines crossed down on May/1, CLX fell $-13.01 per share (-8.14%). Since SMA50d and SMA100d crossed up on Apr 8th, CLX price slid a -5.12%.
Weekly outlook
Shares of Clorox closed this week at $146.72 and remained stable a neutral -0.22%. Late April CLX collapsed a dreadful -6.33% in just one week.
Since price and 40-weeks moving average lines crossed down late April, CLX fell $-10.84 per share (-6.88%). Trading stocks that are below the 40-weeks (that is, 200-days) moving average line is not recommended by many experts, as it indicates that the stock has not enough institutional support. Far behind is the all-time high Clorox hit late November 2018 and since then the price is -11.41% below that top. Since mid September 2018 when SMA20w and SMA40w crossed up, CLX price slipped $-1.20 per share (-0.81%).
Clorox stock price history
Clorox IPO was on March 17th, 1980 at $0.10 per share1. Since then, CLX stock surged a 146,620.00%, with a yearly average of 3,759.50%. If you had invested right after CLX's IPO a $1,000 in Clorox stock in 1980, it would worth $1,466,200.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
Clorox stock historical price chart
CLX stock reached all-time highs on November with a price of $165.62.
Clorox stock price target is $151.70
Predicting the price evolution of a stock or any financial instrument in a reliable and repeatable way is probably impossible. However, financial institutions invest time and resources to provide the most accurated estimations to help investors to make their decisions. The accuracy of these stock price predictions is not very high, and you should not blindly believe and make decisions only based on what this ratings or price target predictions say. We have 7 price forecasts for Clorox stock published in the last 30 days:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-5-2 | Wells Fargo & Co | Lowers Target | $157.00 | $153.00 | -2.5% |
| 2019-5-2 | Deutsche Bank | Upgrades | n/a | $139.00 | - |
| 2019-5-2 | Citigroup | Lowers Target | $171.00 | $160.00 | -6.4% |
| 2019-5-2 | Bank of America | Reiterates | $165.00 | $154.00 | -6.7% |
| 2019-4-8 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | Downgrades | $159.00 | $139.00 | -12.6% |
| 2019-2-6 | Barclays | Reiterates | n/a | $142.00 | - |
| 2019-2-5 | BMO Capital Markets | Raises Target | $6.40 | $175.00 | 2634.4% |
| (in average) | $131.70 | $151.70 | 15.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
After presenting its last earnings report on Apr/30, Clorox declined a fateful -6.18%. Unfortunately, reported EPS is not yet available in our database.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | 1.53 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | 2017-11-01 | 1.42 | 1.46 | 2.8% |
| 2017-Q4 | 2018-02-02 | 1.23 | 1.77 | 43.9% |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-05-02 | 1.3 | 1.37 | 5.4% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-08-02 | 1.58 | 1.66 | 5.1% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-10-31 | 1.59 | 1.62 | 1.9% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2019-02-04 | 1.32 | 1.4 | 6.1% |
| 2019-Q1 | 2019-04-30 | 1.46 | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
Compared to 2017, last anual revenues report draw a slightly good growth of 2.53% to $6,124.00 million dollars. When comparing 2018 vs 2017, aligned with this, profit margin (that is, the net income divided by revenues) raised a 1.70% to 13.44%. To have an updated picture of the financial situation of Clorox, we have calculated the trailing twelve month (TTM) sales and income figures. TTM values are the sum of the last 4 quarters and aproximate to an annual fiscal report ending in 2019-Q1 that can be compared to 2018 fiscal year results. Annual Clorox TTM sales up to March 2019 were $6,278.00 and income was $796.00 M dollars. When comparing this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can review Clorox business evolution since June 2018: Annual sales up to March, compared to lastest yearly report, appreciated a slightly good 2.51%. Instead, profit margin (net income/sales) remained constant at 13.44%.| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $5,620 M | - | $574 M10.2% | - |
| 2014 | $5,510 M | -1.96% | $579 M10.5% | 0.87% |
| 2015 | $5,655 M | 2.63% | $580 M10.3% | 0.17% |
| 2016 | $5,761 M | 1.87% | $648 M11.2% | 11.72% |
| 2017 | $5,973 M | 3.68% | $701 M11.7% | 8.18% |
| 2018 | $6,124 M | 2.53% | $823 M13.4% | 17.40% |
| TTM | $6,278 M | 2.51% | $796 M12.7% | -3.28% |
Quarterly financial results
Clorox posted $1,551.00 million in revenues for 2019-Q1, a 5.30% improvement compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter income marked $187.00 M with a profit margin of 12.06%. Profit margin remained stable a -0.30% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 12.36%. When comparing turnover to same quarter last year, Clorox sales marked a slightly fine increase and stepped up a 2.24%.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $1,650 M | - | $202 M12.2% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $1,500 M | -9.09% | $192 M12.8% | -4.95% |
| 2017-Q4 | $1,416 M | -5.60% | $233 M16.5% | 21.35% |
| 2018-Q1 | $1,517 M | 7.13% | $181 M11.9% | -22.32% |
| 2018-Q2 | $1,691 M | 11.47% | $217 M12.8% | 19.89% |
| 2018-Q3 | $1,563 M | -7.57% | $210 M13.4% | -3.23% |
| 2018-Q4 | $1,473 M | -5.76% | $182 M12.4% | -13.33% |
| 2019-Q1 | $1,551 M | 5.30% | $187 M12.1% | 2.75% |
Clorox ownership
When you are planning to buy shares of a company, it's worth to have a look its ownership structure.Management staff in all public traded companies that hold equity is required to report every transaction to the SEC. For Clorox, 0.11% of all outstanding shares are owned by its staff.
In case of Clorox stock, 79.48% of its shares are held by institutions (mutual funds, pension funds, big banks and other large financial institutions). Bearish positions for CLX stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
The following table compares ownership indicators for other stocks related to Clorox:
| CLX | CHD | OBCI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $18.7 B | $18.2 B | $30.8 M |
| Total shares | 127.4 M | 246.2 M | 9.4 M |
| Float shares | 127.1 M | 245.7 M | 3.6 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 79.5% | 88.4% | 3.6% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 0.1% | 0.2% | 61.9% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Clorox summary
| Monday, May 20th, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $145.50 |
| Close | $146.72 |
| Day range | $145.25 - $147.71 |
| Previous close | $147.05 |
| Session gain | -0.22% |
| Average true range | $3.03 |
| 50d mov avg | $153.84 |
| 100d mov avg | $153.15 |
| 200d mov avg | $151.50 |
| Daily pattern | |
| Weekly pattern | lb11a |
Clorox performance
Stocks performance is always measured in comparision to the market or competitors and related stocks in the same industry. We chose Church & Dwight and Ocean Bio-Chem as the bechmarking frame for Clorox stock.| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLXClorox | -7.48% | -8.76% | 22.85% |
| CHDChurch & Dwight | 11.94% | 12.91% | 58.16% |
| OBCIOcean Bio-Chem | -7.58% | -7.32% | -2.95% |
Clorox competitors
Defining a list of competitors for Clorox it's difficult. We selected 2 public companies that are related to and can be considered as competitors of Clorox:Latest Clorox stock news
- InvestorPlace3 Big Stock Charts for Monday: Davita, Clorox and Expedia GroupMay 20, 2019
- InvestorPlaceThe Clorox Company Earnings: Why CLX Stock Is Sliding Lower TodayMay 1, 2019
- Seeking AlphaDividend Pros: The Clorox CompanyFebruary 25, 2019
- Seeking AlphaClorox As A Defensive Stock Looks Solid And Accordingly PricedJanuary 17, 2019
- InvestorPlaceDon’t Buy the Headlines or Clorox Stock at All Right NowNovember 30, 2018