Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD) Short Interest Update

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,080,000 shares, a growth of 10.1% from the May 31st total of 5,520,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,230,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.9 days. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Church & Dwight news, CFO Richard A. Dierker sold 86,740 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.56, for a total transaction of $9,243,014.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 7,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $813,479.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Church & Dwight news, CFO Richard A. Dierker sold 86,740 shares of Church & Dwight stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.56, for a total value of $9,243,014.40. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 7,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $813,479.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Penry W. Price sold 7,752 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.47, for a total transaction of $817,603.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,692 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,709,735.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 182,346 shares of company stock valued at $19,465,948. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Church & Dwight

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Church & Dwight by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,265,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,861,865,000 after acquiring an additional 354,946 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Church & Dwight by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 9,097,575 shares of the company’s stock worth $948,968,000 after buying an additional 92,862 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Church & Dwight by 89.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,027,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $552,283,000 after acquiring an additional 2,839,783 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Church & Dwight by 1.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,291,982 shares of the company’s stock valued at $301,645,000 after acquiring an additional 61,090 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Church & Dwight during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $259,967,000. Institutional investors own 86.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CHD has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Church & Dwight from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Church & Dwight from $110.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Church & Dwight in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $114.00 price target for the company. Bank of America upped their target price on Church & Dwight from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Church & Dwight from $83.00 to $82.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.65.

Church & Dwight Price Performance

Church & Dwight stock traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $105.53. 831,626 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,310,282. Church & Dwight has a 1-year low of $82.25 and a 1-year high of $110.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The business has a fifty day moving average of $106.74 and a 200 day moving average of $102.20. The company has a market capitalization of $25.80 billion, a PE ratio of 33.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.52.

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.10. Church & Dwight had a net margin of 13.13% and a return on equity of 20.35%. The company had revenue of $1.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. Church & Dwight’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Church & Dwight will post 3.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Church & Dwight Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.2838 per share. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 14th. Church & Dwight’s payout ratio is 35.87%.

Church & Dwight Company Profile

Church & Dwight Co, Inc develops, manufactures, and markets household, personal care, and specialty products. It operates in three segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International, and Specialty Products Division. The company offers cat litters, carpet deodorizers, laundry detergents, and baking soda, as well as other baking soda based products under the ARM & HAMMER brand; condoms, lubricants, and vibrators under the TROJAN brand; stain removers, cleaning solutions, laundry detergents, and bleach alternatives under the OXICLEAN brand; toothbrushes under the SPINBRUSH brand; home pregnancy and ovulation test kits under the FIRST RESPONSE brand; depilatories under the NAIR brand; oral analgesics under the ORAJEL brand; laundry detergents under the XTRA brand; gummy dietary supplements under the L'IL CRITTERS and VITAFUSION brands; dry shampoos under the BATISTE brand; water flossers and showerheads under the WATERPIK brand; cold shortening and relief products under the ZICAM brand; oral care products under the THERABREATH brand; and acne treatment products under the HERO brand.