CLX

Clorox is a defensive household-products company whose FY2025 earnings normalized sharply after several weak years. Revenue was essentially flat at $7.10B (+0.2%), but net income surged 189.3% to $810M and diluted EPS jumped to $6.52 — a recovery from the depressed $149M (FY2023) and $280M (FY2024) results that were dented by a 2023 cyberattack and cost inflation. Gross margin rebounded to 45.2% (gross profit up 5.4%), and operating cash flow grew 41.2% to $981M, restoring the cash generation that funds the company's franchise of leading brands.

The cash returns are the core of the story. Clorox paid $602M in dividends and repurchased $332M of stock in FY2025, comfortably covered by $981M of operating cash flow against modest $220M capex. The dividend (~6.3% of the $11.7B market cap as a payout, yielding roughly 5%) is a key attraction for income investors. Leverage is meaningful — $2.48B long-term debt — but stable, and the balance sheet's tiny $321M equity is an artifact of years of buybacks rather than a sign of weakness (so the 252% ROE figure is not analytically meaningful).