Tag Archives: Clorox Co

Business

Clorox’s brands are inflation-proof and can thrive in recessions, CEO says

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Clorox CEO Linda Rendle told CNBC on Wednesday the company’s products are “household essentials” that can withstand rising inflationary environments and tough economic times.

The company’s brands include its namesake Clorox products as well as Brita water filtration, Glad bags and Burt’s Bees to highlight a few.

As an example of Clorox’s pricing power, Rendle referenced another round of price increases set for July to help offset higher costs and “recover margins over time.”

The CEO told Jim Cramer on “Mad Money” that Clorox brands offer superior value for things people need to use every day, even in recessions. In 2008, during the financial crisis, “our categories were very resilient, and we grew the vast majority of our brands,” she explained.

There’s concern the Federal Reserve’s aggressive moves to stamp out inflation might slow economic growth and cause a recession. The Fed increased interest rates by another 50 basis points Wednesday.

Clorox reported a decidedly mixed quarter after the closing bell Monday. The stock opened lower Tuesday but closed up 3%. It added another 1.4% on Wednesday.

  • The consumer packaged goods powerhouse late Monday reported fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.31 per share, which beat estimates but dropped 19% from the year-ago period.
  • Net sales increased 2% to a slightly better-than-expected $1.81 billion. Gross margin was crushed.
  • The company shaved 20 cents off its full-year earnings forecast, while maintaining a projected net sales decline of between 1% to 4% for the year.

“For the first part of our fiscal year, we were lapping 27% sales growth in the year-ago period. But this quarter, as we lapped a more normalized environment, we were able to put on organic growth in three out of our four segments, the vast majority of our businesses,” Rendle said. “In addition to that, we were able to grow market share.”

Rendle said that cleaning habits that grew out of the Covid pandemic are sticky even as many aspects of life have been returning to more normalized routines. The company has leaned into the trend, launching packaging solutions so people can “control the environment around them” and take the products on the go, she said, noting that Clorox is a “much larger business” than it was pre-pandemic.

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Amazon, Snap, Ford, Clorox and more

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The Amazon logo is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France.

Pascal Rossignol | Reuters

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Amazon — Shares of Amazon popped more than 14% following a stellar quarterly report. The company said its investment in electric vehicle company Rivian gained almost $12 billion in the fourth quarter. Amazon Web Services delivered almost 40% year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street estimates. Amazon also announced it would increase the price of Prime to $139 from $119 for annual memberships. The cost of a monthly Prime membership will also rise to $14.99 from $12.99.

Ford Motor — Ford fell more than 10% after a weaker-than-expected quarterly report. The automaker posted earnings of 26 cents per share on revenue of $35.3 billion. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected a profit of 45 cents per share on revenue of $35.52 billion.

Snap — Shares of the social media platform soared a whopping 52% after the company reported its first-ever quarterly net profit. Snap’s quarterly results also showed it’s seeing quicker-than-expected progress on its transition with advertisers around Apple’s privacy changes on iOS. Its shares had just suffered a 23.6% sell-off on Thursday, prior to the earnings release.

Clorox — The cleaning products stock tumbled more than 14% after Clorox’s second-quarter earnings came in at 66 cents per share, which was 18 cents below expectations, according to Refinitiv. Clorox also delivered full-year earnings guidance that missed estimates. Atlantic Equities downgraded the stock to underweight.

Pinterest — Pinterest popped more than 6% following a better-than-expected quarterly report. The social media platform posted earnings of 49 cents per share, 4 cents above the Refinitv consensus estimate. Revenue also topped Wall Street expectations.

Unity Software – Shares of the video game platform surged more than 16% after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and issued upbeat current-quarter guidance. Unity also said it has strong growth opportunities over decades in the future based on interactive real-time 3D gaming.

Skechers — Shares of Skechers added 6.4% after the footwear retailer beat Wall Street expectations on its top and bottom lines. Skechers reported record 2021 sales amid strong demand for casual and comfortable shoes.

Meta Platforms — Shares of Facebook’s parent company fell for another day after the tech giant’s disappointing quarterly report Wednesday, down about 1.2%. Friday’s dip comes after other social media companies like Snap saw better-than-expected progress in adapting their digital advertising to Apple’s iOS privacy changes.

Penn National Gaming — Shares of Penn National Gaming dropped nearly 3% following the company’s earnings report Thursday. Penn also received a downgrade from Roth to neutral from buy. “While we remain bullish on PENN’s digital opportunity longer term, we see several negative catalysts in 2022 that could erode confidence in its market share trajectory,” the firm said.

— CNBC’s Yun Li, Jesse Pound and Tanaya Macheel contributed reporting

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Business

Semiconductor shortage to be in focus yet again

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday looked ahead to next week’s of earnings reports, detailing for investors his key market events to keep an eye on.

The “Mad Money” host’s comments came after all three major U.S. equity indexes closed at record highs Friday, despite disappointing quarterly results a day earlier from market heavyweights Amazon and Apple.

All revenue and per-share earnings projections are based on FactSet estimates:

Mad Money with Jim Cramer

Monday: ON Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, Diamondback Energy and Clorox

On Semiconductor

  • Q3 results before the bell; conference call at 9 a.m. ET Monday
  • Projected EPS: 74 cents
  • Projected sales: $1.7 billion

NXP Semiconductors

  • Q3 results; conference call at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday
  • Projected EPS: $2.75
  • Projected sales: $ 2.85 billion

Both companies’ earnings will offer “a read on one of the biggest stories in this market, and that’s the semiconductor shortage,” Cramer said. “They do a lot of auto semis, and they’ve got exposure to many of the others areas where there are the biggest bottlenecks.”

Diamondback Energy

  • Q3 results after the close; conference call at 9 a.m. ET Tuesday
  • Projected EPS: $2.79
  • Projected revenue: $1.54 billion

Clorox

  • Q1 2022 results after the bell; conference call at 5:30 p.m. ET Monday
  • Projected EPS: $1.03
  • Projected revenue: $1.7 billion

“I hope for the best, but I am preparing for the worst,” Cramer said, noting the household products maker may not be able to pass through all of its higher commodity costs, possibly hurting margins.

Tuesday: Estee Lauder, DuPont, Pfizer, BP, Devon Energy, T-Mobile and Zillow

Estee Lauder

  • Q1 2022 results before the open; conference call at 9:30 a.m. ET Tuesday
  • Projected EPS: $1.70
  • Projected sales: $4.25 billion

DuPont

  • Q3 results before the bell; conference call at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday
  • Projected EPS: $1.12
  • Projected sales: $4.16 billion

Cramer’s charitable trust owns both Estee Lauder and DuPont. “I don’t expect them to have superb quarters. Fortunately, the expectations are low, though, so it won’t take much to produce an upside surprise that moves the stocks up,” he said.

Pfizer

  • Q3 results before the open; conference call at 10 a.m. ET
  • Projected EPS: $1.08
  • Projected revenue: $22.58 billion

“Unlike Moderna, Pfizer’s a lot more complicated than just a Covid vaccine story. See, they’re facing what’s known as a patent cliff next year,” Cramer said. “We need to know if the boosters, which cost a lot of money, … are going to cover the patent cliff.”

BP

  • Q3 results before the bell; conference call at 5 a.m. ET Tuesday
  • Projected EPS: £ 10.83
  • Projected revenue: £29.06 billion

Devon Energy

  • Q3 results after the close; conference call at 11 a.m. ET Wednesday
  • Projected EPS: 93 cents
  • Projected sales: $3.23 billion

T-Mobile

  • Q3 results after the close; conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET Tuesday
  • Projected EPS: 48 cents
  • Projected revenue: $20.22 billion

“The [telecommunications] industry has got a clear pecking order: T-Mobile for growth, Verizon for the dividend, and AT&T for nothing. Let’s see how many subscribers T-Mobile has been able to steal from its rivals when they report,” Cramer sad.

Zillow

  • Q3 after the close; conference call at 5 a.m. ET Tuesday
  • Projected EPS: 16 cents
  • Projected revenue: $2 billion

“They had to put the real estate flipping business on pause because the economics turned out against them, but what does that really mean? We’re going to find out on Tuesday,” Cramer said.

Wednesday: CVS Health, Humana, Marriott International, Wynn Resorts, Qualcomm and Etsy

CVS Health

  • Q3 results before the bell; conference call at 8 a.m. ET Wednesday
  • Projected EPS: $1.79
  • Projected revenue: $70.5 billion

“This stock’s been on a roll, bolstered by Covid vaccines and superior execution, at least compared to arch-rival Walgreens. I don’t know if it can continue now that the pandemic’s winding down, but remember that CVS also has a huge health insurance business,” Cramer said.

Humana

  • Q3 results before the open; conference call at 9 a.m. ET Wednesday
  • Projected EPS: $4.66
  • Projected revenue: $20.9 billion

Cramer said he expects the health insurer’s numbers to be even better than rivals Centene and UnitedHealth Group.

Marriott International

  • Q3 results before the bell; conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday
  • Projected EPS: 99 cents
  • Projected sales: $3.71 billion

Wynn Resorts

  • Q3 results after the close
  • Projected EPS: Loss of $1.36
  • Projected revenue: $943 million

Cramer said he expects Marriott International to have a better story to tell about the hospitality recovery compared to Wynn Resorts, which his charitable trust owns. He said that’s because of Wynn Resorts’ exposure to the gaming hub of Macau.

Qualcomm

  • Q4 results after the close; conference call at 4:45 p.m. ET Wednesday
  • Projected EPS: $2.26
  • Projected revenue: $8.85 billion

“They’ll give us more insight into the cellphone market, but I bet that can’t be that positive, either,” Cramer said, alluding to the chip crunch.

Etsy

  • Q3 results after the close; conference call at 5 p.m. ET Wednesday
  • Projected EPS: 55 cents
  • Projected revenue: $519 million

“I bet CEO Josh Silverman will have a lot of good to say about his e-commerce platform for handicrafts—should make a nice contrast to Amazon’s disappointing quarter,” Cramer said.

Thursday: Uber, Skyworks Solutions, Peloton and Square

Uber

  • Q3 results after the close; conference call 5 p.m. ET Thursday
  • Projected EPS: Loss of 34 cents
  • Projected revenue: $4.41 billion

“I think Uber can deliver, but the stock’s been kept down by persistent sellers, so even a good quarter might not matter, at least not until these weak hands finish dumping their shares,” Cramer said.

Skyworks Solutions

  • Q4 results after the bell; conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET Thursday
  • Projected EPS: $2.55
  • Projected sales: $1.3 billion

“Maybe they give us some insight into when the chip shortage nightmare can come to an end,” Cramer said.

Peloton

  • Q1 2022 results after the close; conference call at 5 p.m. ET Thursday
  • Projected EPS: Loss of $1.10
  • Projected sales: $809 million

The fitness equipment maker was a major pandemic winner, but the stock has struggled to gain traction since investors shifted toward reopening plays, Cramer said. “I think they’ve got their work cut out for them.”

Square

  • Q3 results after the close; conference call at 5 p.m. ET Thursday
  • Projected EPS: 37 cents
  • Projected revenue: $4.38 billion

“I’m betting their mojo will be absent for now, mojo being a technical term on Wall Street for the massive love a stock gets after a monster beat and raise quarter,” Cramer said.

Friday: Enbridge and October nonfarm payrolls

Enbridge

  • Q3 results before the bell; conference call at 9 a.m. ET Friday
  • Projected EPS: 57 cents
  • Projected revenue: $9.62 billion

Cramer said he likes the company’s dividend payment. “Plus, we have a real shortage of energy infrastructure, so I bet business is good,” Cramer said.

The Labor Department’s report on nonfarm payrolls for the month of October is out at 8:30 a.m. Friday, but Cramer cautioned the recent monthly reports have been “all over the map right now,” making their appearance “seem deceiving.”

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Business

Robinhood, Clorox, American Airlines and more

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People wait in line for t-shirts at a pop-up kiosk for the online brokerage Robinhood along Wall Street after the company went public with an IPO earlier in the day on July 29, 2021 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Robinhood — Shares of the newly public stock-trading app rose over 16% in midday trading on Tuesday. Robinhood rose above its IPO price of $38 per share, to trade above $44 per share. ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood has been buying shares of HOOD since its IPO. The Menlo Park, California-based company is a “top traded stock” on Fidelity, which is generally a good proxy for individual investor interest on a given day.

Take-Two Interactive Software  — The video game company’s share price dropped about 9% after the firm issued a weak outlook and announcing delays in new releases for some of its games. Still, Take-Two Interactive’s quarterly earnings and revenue both came in above estimates, according to Refinitiv.

American Airlines – Shares of the airline company dipped more than 2% as a jump in Covid cases weighed on areas of the market that could be hit hardest by new lockdown measures. The company has also faced disruptions from inclement weather and staffing constraints. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines also traded lower on Tuesday.

Alibaba — The Chinese e-commerce giant saw its shares fall about 2% after reporting a revenue miss. Alibaba notched revenue of $31.8 billion in the three months to the end of June, missing estimates of around $32.4 billion, according to the FactSet consensus.

Simon Property Group — Shares of the U.S. mall owner rose over 2% after the company’s strong quarterly earnings report. Simon Property posted revenue of $1.16 billion, compared with the $1.14 billion that analysts expected, according to Refinitiv. The company said sales at its shopping malls and outlet centers bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in its latest fiscal quarter.

Royal Caribbean – Royal Caribbean shares came under pressure and slid more than 2% amid concerns about a rise in Covid cases. Last week the company said that six passengers on board one of its cruises tested positive for Covid. Norwegian Cruise and Carnival Corporation dipped 2.6% and 1.5%, respectively.

Under Armour — Shares of Under Armour gained about more than 6% after the athletic apparel retailer’s second-quarter earnings and sales topped analysts’ estimates. The company reported adjusted earnings of 24 cents per share on revenue of $1.35 billion. Analysts expected earnings of 6 cents per share on revenue of $1.21 billion, according to Refinitiv. Under Armour also hiked its revenue outlook.

Clorox – Clorox sunk more than 10% after the household products maker missed top and bottom line estimates for its latest quarter. Clorox reported adjusted earnings of 95 cents per share on revenue of $1.8 billion. Analysts were looking for earnings $1.35 per share on revenue of $1.92 billion, according to Refinitiv. Clorox’s sales dropped off from a year ago during the height of the pandemic when consumers stocked up on its cleaning and disinfecting products.

Eli Lilly — Shares of the pharmaceutical company rose over 4% despite missing analyst earnings estimates in its quarterly report. Eli Lilly reported earnings of $1.87 per share, below the $1.89 per shares expected on The Street. Revenue topped estimates.

— with reporting from CNBC’s Yun Li, Hannah Miao and Pippa Stevens.

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Business

Investors bet on Kroger, Costco as Covid-19 cases spook Wall Street

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As U.S. stocks plummeted Monday, investors bet on a familiar category that could grow if Covid-19 cases continue to rise: Grocery stores.

Shares of Kroger, Albertsons, BJ’s Wholesale Club were up as of midday Monday. Costco touched an all-time high of $415.32.

Those stocks were among the rare bright spots on Wall Street, as the Dow Jones Industrial average appears headed for its biggest drop of the year. Several other stay-at-home stocks, including Clorox and Peloton, were also in the green.

Grocers have been some of the biggest pandemic beneficiaries over the past year, as restaurants temporarily shut and shoppers stocked up on pantry staples and cooked at home.

The retailers face tough comparisons in the coming quarters, as they go up against unusually high sales growth numbers. Investors and companies have been trying to figure out when — and to what extent — consumers will return to their dining out habits, as more people are fully vaccinated and restrictions ease. In recent weeks, however, the rise of the delta variant of Covid-19 — particularly in parts of the country with low vaccination rates — has complicated those predictions.

Brian Yarbrough, a retail analyst for Edward Jones, said investors are getting spooked by news of the delta variant and the rollback of the reopening in some parts of the country — such as the return of indoor mask mandates in Los Angeles. He said that is causing some to flock back to tried-and-true pandemic names.

“You have seen a flight to more safety,” he said. “If this plays out and Covid starts to rear it’s head again and things start to shut down, you’d see grocery benefit from that.”

Michael Baker, a retail analyst for D.A. Davidson, said grocers’ pop on the market is “the reverse of what you’re seeing with airline stocks.” As of midday Monday, airlines and cruises were among the hardest hit sectors as investors worried travel trends may slow or reverse.

Grocery sales are still above pre-pandemic levels, according to data from IRI, which tracks sales patterns across supermarkets, big-box retailers and convenience stores. Total demand for consumer packaged goods was about the same as year-ago levels for the week ending July 4, though sales of perishables and total non-edible items fell slightly.

Baker said some people have formed new habits over the past year, as they cooked more. Plus, he said a shortage of labor has dinged the customer service at some restaurants, giving customers another reason to eat at home instead.

“The American public maybe learned eating at home is nice,” he said. “You spend a lot of time at home with your family and it’s more economical.”

He said recent data backs up the stickiness of food at home patterns, too. Receipts at food and beverage stores rose by 0.6% in June versus the prior month, according to data from the Commerce Department. On the other hand, restaurant dining is still down 8% in July compared with a year ago, based on OpenTable reservations that track seated diners from online, phone and walk-in reservations.

However, not all pandemic beneficiaries saw their fortunes change on Monday. Shares of Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe’s fell on Monday.

Yarbrough chalked that up to Walmart selling general merchandise and discretionary items, rather than being a pure-play grocer. And, he said, investors may anticipate retailers that fare better during the delta variant’s spread could look different as the government takes different measures. Instead of shutting down non-essential retailers, for instance, local officials may bring back mask mandates and consumers may decide on their own to skip or reduce outings to restaurants. That would mean less dramatic sales gains for home improvement retailers, which were able to stay open during lockdowns as essential retailers, he said.

Yarbrough said he remains convinced that dining out will return at the expense of grocery sales. Yet he said that may take longer to play out — and could be interrupted by spikes in Covid cases.

“With the delta variant being out there, that may cause some scare among people to say ‘You know what, I’m going to start staying at home. We started going back out to dinner, but we’re going to start eating at home for awhile until this passes,'” he said.

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