Clorox Guides FY19 EPS In Line With View - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Clorox Co. (CLX) on Thursday initiated guidance for full-year 2019, projecting earnings from continuing operations in a range of $6.32 to $6.52 per share, which includes about 8 to 12 cents of dilution related to the Nutranext acquisition.

Clorox also anticipates fiscal 2019 sales growth in the range of 2 to 4 percent, driven by continued strong innovation, which is expected to deliver about 3 percentage points of growth, as well as about 2.5 percentage points of combined impact from the Nutranext acquisition and Aplicare divestiture.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $6.37 per share on sales growth of 4.7 percent to $6.44 billion for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Consistent with Clorox's share repurchase program of up to $2 billion announced in May 2018, the company currently plans to repurchase about half the full amount in fiscal year 2019.

For the fourth quarter, net income increased to $217 million or $1.66 per share from $201 million or $1.52 per share in the prior-year quarter. Net sales increased to $1.69 billion from last year's $1.65 billion. Analysts expected quarterly earnings of $1.57 per share on sales of $1.72 billion.