Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold” Rating

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

CHD has been the subject of several other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Church & Dwight from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Church & Dwight from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $112.00 to $125.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Church & Dwight from $106.00 to $102.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Church & Dwight from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Cowen downgraded Church & Dwight from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven 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 price target of $108.67.

Church & Dwight Price Performance

Shares of Church & Dwight stock opened at $96.42 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $97.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $103.50. Church & Dwight has a twelve month low of $90.99 and a twelve month high of $116.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.38, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.52.

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.02. Church & Dwight had a return on equity of 19.28% and a net margin of 9.52%. The company had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.96 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Church & Dwight will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Church & Dwight

In other news, Director Penry W. Price sold 14,660 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.13, for a total value of $1,365,285.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 27,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,518,514.59. The trade was a 35.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Richard A. Dierker purchased 7,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $94.66 per share, for a total transaction of $752,547.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 16,358 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,548,448.28. This represents a 94.55% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 50,575 shares of company stock valued at $4,910,586. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Church & Dwight

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CHD. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Church & Dwight by 89.3% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 53,164 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,567,000 after buying an additional 25,080 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Church & Dwight by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,426,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,335,000 after purchasing an additional 6,425 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Church & Dwight by 19.4% in the fourth 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 period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Church & Dwight during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $76,565,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Church & Dwight by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 184,133 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,281,000 after buying an additional 21,742 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.60% of the company’s stock.

About Church & Dwight

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.