Clorox First Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Clorox (NYSE:CLX) will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, October 31, 2012. Clorox manufactures consumer products that are sold primarily through mass merchandisers, grocery stores, and other retail outlets.

Clorox Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for profit of 95 cents per share, a decline of 5.9% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at 95 cents during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 1.2% versus last year to $4.29.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company beat estimates by 9 cents, coming in at net income of $1.36 a share versus the estimate of profit of $1.27 a share. It marked the fourth straight quarter of beating estimates.

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Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts predict a rise of 3.8% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $1.35 billion.

A Look Back: In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, profit rose 3% to $174 million ($1.32 a share) from $169 million ($1.25 a share) the year earlier, exceeding analyst expectations. Revenue rose 4% to $1.54 billion from $1.48 billion.

Stock Price Performance: Between October 19, 2012 and October 25, 2012, the stock price dropped $2.18 (-2.9%), from $74.99 to $72.81. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between September 27, 2012 and October 8, 2012, when shares rose for eight straight days, increasing 3.8% (+$2.72) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between October 18, 2012 and October 24, 2012 when shares fell for five straight days, dropping 3.7% (-$2.83) over that span.

Key Stats:

On the top line, the company is looking to build on four-straight revenue increases heading into this earnings announcement. Revenue rose 3.1% in the first quarter of the last fiscal year, 3.6% in the second quarter of the last fiscal year and 7.4% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year before increasing again in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year of the last fiscal year.

There has enjoyed solid performance recently heading into this earnings announcement with profit rising by a year-over-year average of 87.6% for the last four quarters.

Analyst Ratings: There are mostly holds on the stock with 14 of 15 analysts surveyed giving that rating.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 0.67 last quarter. The current ratio is an indication of a firm’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands and generally, a ratio less than one could indicate a company may have difficulty meeting current obligations.

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(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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