(Reuters) -Clorox Co forecast full-year sales below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, as demand for its bleaches, wipes and other surface cleaners eased from pandemic highs, sending its shares down 6%.
Easing COVID-19 restrictions in the United States are prompting people to reduce purchases of surface cleaners and other sanitation products from last year when cleaning products makers benefited from a pandemic-driven frenzy in demand although demand is still higher than before the pandemic.
Sales in the company’s health and wellness division, its biggest unit by sales and home to Clorox disinfecting wipes, fell 17%.
Net sales fell to $1.80 billion from $1.98 billion in the fourth quarter, missing the average analyst estimate of $1.92 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
The company said it expects fiscal 2022 sales to fall in the range of 2% to 6%, compared with the average analyst estimate of a 1% decline, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
(Reporting by Mehr Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
