Clorox Stock Soars 7% After Hours as Company Recovers from Previous Cyberattack Clorox Stock Soars 7% After Hours as Company Recovers from Previous Cyberattack

Published On: February 1, 2024 8:00 pm

Clorox Products Production Disrupted By Cyberattack — Brandon Bell

Shares of Clorox (NYSE:CLX) experienced a significant surge of over 7% in after-hours trading on Thursday. This rally ensued after the powerhouse in cleaning products delivered a stellar performance, surpassing both top and bottom line expectations and revising its forecast to reflect its recovery from a cyberattack that occurred in August last year.

Post market hours, CLX stock soared by 7.4% to reach $159. The update came on the heels of Clorox (CLX) reporting an adjusted profit per share of $2.16 for the second quarter of 2024, surpassing estimates by over a dollar. Furthermore, the company posted a remarkable 15.7% year-over-year surge in revenue, amounting to $1.99 billion, which also exceeded expectations by $190 million.

Oakland, California-based Clorox (CLX) specializes in offering an array of cleaning and home care products, including renowned brands such as its eponymous disinfectant, Chux utensils cleaner, Liquid-Plumr drain cleaner, and Pine-Sol multi-surface cleaner.

The company’s organic sales for the second quarter of 2024 witnessed a significant 20% upsurge. This robust quarterly revenue growth was primarily propelled by an increase in volume as the company systematically rebuilt its customer inventories following the cyberattack, coupled with a favorable price mix.

In September last year, the company unveiled that it had detected unauthorized activity on some of its information technology systems on August 14. The fallout from the cyberattack also considerably impacted Clorox’s (CLX) first quarter results.

“Our second quarter results reflect strong execution of our recovery plan from the August cyberattack. We are rebuilding retailer inventories ahead of schedule, enabling us to return to merchandising and restore distribution,” affirmed CLX CEO Linda Rendle in a statement.

Shifting focus to Clorox’s (CLX) revised guidance, the company now anticipates fiscal year 2024 net sales to experience a low single-digit decline, in contrast to its initial projection of a mid- to high-single-digit decrease. Concurrently, adjusted earnings per share are now expected to range between $5.30 to $5.50, as opposed to the prior outlook of $4.30 to $4.80.

The consensus revenue estimate for fiscal year 2024 anticipates an 8.4% year-over-year decline in sales. The projected earnings per share estimate stands at $4.66.