Consumer products giant Clorox (NYSE: CLX) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2026, but sales were flat year on year at $1.67 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.64 per share was 6.1% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Clorox (CLX) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $1.67 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.67 billion (flat year on year, in line)
- Adjusted EPS: $1.64 vs analyst estimates of $1.55 (6.1% beat)
- Adjusted Operating Income: $256 million vs analyst estimates of $273.2 million (15.3% margin, 6.3% miss)
- Management lowered its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $5.55 at the midpoint, a 9.4% decrease
- Operating Margin: 15.3%, in line with the same quarter last year
- Market Capitalization: $11.46 billion
"Our third-quarter results were mixed, with continued momentum in some parts of our portfolio and slower-than-anticipated market share recovery in others," said Chair and CEO Linda Rendle.
Company Overview
Founded in 1913 with bleach as the sole product offering, Clorox (NYSE: CLX) today is a consumer products giant whose product portfolio spans everything from bleach to skincare to salad dressing to kitty litter.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years.
With $6.76 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Clorox is one of the larger consumer staples companies and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because there are only so many big store chains to sell into, making it harder to find incremental growth. To accelerate sales, Clorox likely needs to optimize its pricing or lean into new products and international expansion.
As you can see below, Clorox’s revenue declined by 1.9% per year over the last three years, a rough starting point for our analysis.
This quarter, Clorox’s $1.67 billion of revenue was flat year on year and in line with Wall Street’s estimates.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 4.2% over the next 12 months. Although this projection suggests its newer products will fuel better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.
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Cash Is King
If you’ve followed StockStory for a while, you know we emphasize free cash flow. Why, you ask? We believe that in the end, cash is king, and you can’t use accounting profits to pay the bills.
Clorox has shown robust cash profitability, driven by its attractive business model that enables it to reinvest or return capital to investors. The company’s free cash flow margin averaged 11.1% over the last two years, quite impressive for a consumer staples business.
Key Takeaways from Clorox’s Q1 Results
It was good to see Clorox beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. On the other hand, its gross margin missed and its full-year EPS guidance fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this quarter could have been better. The stock traded down 6.3% to $90.38 immediately following the results.
Clorox’s earnings report left more to be desired. Let’s look forward to see if this quarter has created an opportunity to buy the stock. When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
