Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL – Get Rating) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have issued a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $85.25.
A number of research firms recently weighed in on CL. StockNews.com lowered shares of Colgate-Palmolive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Berenberg Bank lowered their price target on Colgate-Palmolive from $85.00 to $77.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 2nd. Citigroup raised their price target on Colgate-Palmolive from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Colgate-Palmolive from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $77.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 2nd. Finally, Credit Suisse Group cut their price target on Colgate-Palmolive from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 31st.
Shares of CL opened at $78.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.41, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Colgate-Palmolive has a 1 year low of $74.01 and a 1 year high of $85.61. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.00. The firm has a market cap of $65.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.63.
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 28th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79. Colgate-Palmolive had a net margin of 12.43% and a return on equity of 308.71%. The firm had revenue of $4.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.42 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. Colgate-Palmolive’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Colgate-Palmolive will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current year.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, January 24th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 21st. Colgate-Palmolive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.31%.
In related news, insider Jennifer Daniels sold 40,580 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.93, for a total transaction of $3,365,299.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Patricia Verduin sold 51,194 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.39, for a total value of $4,217,873.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 127,080 shares of company stock worth $10,443,094. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CL. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 65,218,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,565,745,000 after purchasing an additional 5,039,853 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 124.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,194,982 shares of the company’s stock valued at $475,775,000 after purchasing an additional 3,435,717 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 33,925,902 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,564,120,000 after purchasing an additional 3,077,946 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 359.6% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,477,341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,754,000 after purchasing an additional 2,720,790 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 55.5% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 6,261,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $534,391,000 after purchasing an additional 2,235,332 shares in the last quarter. 77.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Colgate-Palmolive Company Profile (Get Rating)
Colgate-Palmolive Co is engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of consumer products. It operates through Oral, Personal and Home Care and Pet Nutrition segments. The Oral, Personal and Home Care segment represents North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa or Eurasia, all of which sell to a variety of retail and wholesale customers and distributors.