Clorox cyberattack damage 'significantly worse' than expected: 5 big analyst cuts

Investing.com — Here is your Pro Recap of the biggest analyst cuts you may have missed since yesterday: Clorox, Tractor Supply, Comerica, Carrier Global, and NextEra Energy.

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Clorox slashed on cyber attack-triggered guidance cut

Raymond James downgraded Clorox (NYSE:CLX) to Market Perform from Outperform Thursday after the company's guidance cut was "significantly worse than we expected" after an August cyberattack.

Shares were falling 4.3% in the premarket.

Clorox now anticipates Q1 sales to plunge between 28% to 23% year over year as a result of the cyberattack, which caused significant disruption, including order processing delays and product outages.

Earnings per share could reflect a loss of as much as $0.40, while the high end of the range is breakeven.

Raymond James cited a more challenged near-term visibility for the company:

While CLX noted that shipment and consumption were in-line with their expectations prior to the attack, we expect that the company will need time to ramp and rebuild the pipeline, which could result in continued loss of sales at retail and eventually, a need to increase promotion to regain lost market share. Exacerbating the recovery, y/y comps are more challenging as the year progresses and input cost risks are increasing.

Carrier Global cut to Underperform at BofA

BofA downgraded Carrier Global (NYSE:CARR) to Underperform from Neutral and cut its price target to $55 from $62.

The analysts said cited "upward valuation rerating post-Viessmann acquisition announcement" as well as "increasingly negative datapoints on Europe’s heat pump demand trends.

BofA additionally said it was concerned about the US light commercial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) market into the first half of next year.

Shares were recently off 2.4% to $53.32 in premarket trading.

Tractor Supply slashed at Citi

Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ:TSCO) shares fell more than 1% pre-market today after Citi downgraded the company to Neutral from Buy and cut its price target to $207.00 from $250.00, as reported in real-time on InvestingPro.

The company is set to report its Q3/23 earnings on Oct 19. Street estimates stand at $2.33 for EPS and $3.49 billion for revenues.

Another pair of downgrades

Raymond James downgraded Comerica Inc (NYSE:CMA) to Outperform from Strong Buy and cut its price target to $53.00 from $57.00.

KeyBanc downgraded Nextera Energy (NYSE:NEE) to Sector Weight from Overweight.

Senad Karaahmetovic contributed to this report.

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