Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) Given New $100.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) had its price target lowered by Morgan Stanley from $110.00 to $100.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on CHD. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Church & Dwight from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on Church & Dwight from $110.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Church & Dwight from $106.00 to $102.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Church & Dwight from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Church & Dwight from $106.00 to $98.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $110.19.

Church & Dwight Trading Down 0.2 %

CHD opened at $92.77 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Church & Dwight has a twelve month low of $91.77 and a twelve month high of $116.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $105.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.85.

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.02. Church & Dwight had a net margin of 9.58% and a return on equity of 20.03%. The company had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.96 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Church & Dwight will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Church & Dwight Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.295 per share. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Church & Dwight’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Church & Dwight

In related news, EVP Maynadier Patrick D. De sold 54,510 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.98, for a total transaction of $6,322,069.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 10,497 shares in the company, valued at $1,217,442.06. The trade was a 83.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Rene Hemsey sold 11,060 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.98, for a total transaction of $1,216,378.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $707,941.26. The trade was a 63.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 65,570 shares of company stock valued at $7,538,449. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Church & Dwight

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Church & Dwight by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,691,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,213,661,000 after acquiring an additional 193,602 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Church & Dwight by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,336,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $768,157,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190,154 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 worth $617,794,000 after purchasing an additional 148,234 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Church & Dwight by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 4,316,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $451,975,000 after purchasing an additional 20,887 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Church & Dwight in the fourth quarter worth approximately $318,532,000. Institutional investors own 86.60% of the company’s stock.

Church & Dwight Company Profile

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.