Sarasin & Partners LLP Grows Holdings in Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL)

Sarasin & Partners LLP lifted its stake in Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) by 9.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,874,593 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 336,737 shares during the quarter. Colgate-Palmolive makes up 3.9% of Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings in Colgate-Palmolive were worth $363,049,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Colgate-Palmolive in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Colgate-Palmolive in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Colgate-Palmolive during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in shares of Colgate-Palmolive during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Colgate-Palmolive during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. 80.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CL. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Colgate-Palmolive from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $89.00 to $86.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $108.00 to $107.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Colgate-Palmolive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.12.

Colgate-Palmolive Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE CL opened at $90.94 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $73.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.83, a PEG ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.38. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $91.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.40, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.92. Colgate-Palmolive has a 52 week low of $85.32 and a 52 week high of $109.30.

Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.05. Colgate-Palmolive had a net margin of 14.38% and a return on equity of 477.77%. The company had revenue of $4.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.86 EPS. Colgate-Palmolive’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Colgate-Palmolive will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Colgate-Palmolive Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 17th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is a positive change from Colgate-Palmolive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. Colgate-Palmolive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.76%.

Colgate-Palmolive announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 20th that authorizes the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 6.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

About Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells consumer products in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Oral, Personal and Home Care; and Pet Nutrition. The Oral, Personal and Home Care segment offers toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, bar and liquid hand soaps, shower gels, shampoos, conditioners, deodorants and antiperspirants, skin health products, dishwashing detergents, fabric conditioners, household cleaners, and other related items.