CLX — Clorox Co.

Will it survive?

• Can it pay its interest? —
  Not enough data
  Little or no interest expense reported

  Operating income wasn't found in the filing data.

• How heavy is the debt? —
  Not enough data

  The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

• How long is cash tied up? —
  Not enough data

  The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

Is it a good business?

• Return on invested capital —
  Not enough data

  The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

• Owner Earnings (free cash) margin 11%
  Solid
  Owner Earnings $761M = operating cash $981M − capex $220M

  What an owner could take out without starving the business. That's 11% of revenue. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $81M of SBC) leaves $680M. Honest caveat: capex here blends maintenance and growth, so steady-state Owner Earnings may run higher (see capex vs. depreciation).

• Are earnings backed by cash? 1.21×
  Cash-backed
  Cash from ops $981M ÷ net income $810M

  How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy — growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

• Where do the earnings go? 123%
  Returns most of it
  Dividends + buybacks $934M ÷ Owner Earnings $761M

  Of $761M Owner Earnings, $934M (123%) went back to shareholders — $602M dividends, $332M buybacks. Net of $81M stock comp, the real buyback was about $251M. Returning most of it signals a mature cash machine; reinvesting most could mean a long runway — or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.

• Investing or harvesting? 1.00×
  Maintaining
  Capex $220M ÷ depreciation $219M

  Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth — or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency — or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Durability & moat — 2016–2025

A moat is a high return that doesn’t fade, reinvested at high returns. Here is what the record says — judgments, not another chart of the numbers.

• Profitable years 10 of 10

  Never lost money over the record — the earnings stability Graham insisted on.

• Owner earnings growth +0%/yr

  Free cash to owners grew about 0% a year over the record.

• Share count −0.6%/yr

  The share count is shrinking — buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.

• Dividend record rising

  Paid and raised the dividend across the record — the continuity Graham prized.