Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) Trading Up 2% – Still a Buy?

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD)’s share price rose 2% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $113.56 and last traded at $113.00. Approximately 267,128 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 1,470,673 shares. The stock had previously closed at $110.76.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CHD shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Church & Dwight from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Church & Dwight from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Church & Dwight from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Church & Dwight from $107.00 to $106.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Church & Dwight in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Church & Dwight has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.13.

Church & Dwight Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $107.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $106.10. The company has a market capitalization of $26.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77. Church & Dwight had a net margin of 9.58% and a return on equity of 20.03%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.65 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Church & Dwight Co., Inc. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Church & Dwight Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.295 dividend. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. This is a positive change from Church & Dwight’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Church & Dwight’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.79%.

Insider Transactions at Church & Dwight

In other Church & Dwight news, EVP Maynadier Patrick D. De sold 54,510 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,497 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,217,442.06. The trade was a 83.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 value of $1,216,378.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,437 shares in the company, valued at $707,941.26. This represents a 63.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,570 shares of company stock worth $7,538,449 over the last 90 days. 2.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Church & Dwight

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CHD. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Church & Dwight in the 4th quarter valued at about $318,532,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Church & Dwight by 8.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,116,334 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,373,542,000 after purchasing an additional 969,006 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Church & Dwight during the fourth quarter worth $76,565,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Church & Dwight during the third quarter worth $58,338,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.