A Board Member Bought Over $200,000 Of Clorox Stock

The two closest peers for Clorox are Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) and The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG). These companies have significantly larger market caps than Clorox, but are actually priced at a small premium as their trailing P/Es are in the 20-21 range. They can’t boast much of an increase in earnings either; in fact, Procter & Gamble saw revenue fall 4% and net income drop 7% in its most recent quarter compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. Procter & Gamble is known to be a favorite of billionaire Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square. Of course, these stocks also have low betas, and dividend yields that are in the same range as Clorox’s, but it’s similarly difficult to see them as good values.

We can also compare Clorox to housewares companies Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE:NWL) and Jarden Corporation (NYSE:JAH). These stocks also look expensive on a trailing basis, but Wall Street analysts expect strong earnings growth next year in both cases: their forward P/Es are 12 and 11, respectively, versus Clorox’s 16. However, we’re not sure that we would depend on those forecasts as each company reported lower sales last quarter than a year earlier.

There don’t seem to be any good values in personal products or housewares, at least among the large and mid caps we’ve considered here. Clorox and its peers have moderately high multiples, with no sign of the growth rates that we’d consider necessary to justify those valuations.