How do I stop parseFloat() from stripping zeroes to right of decimal

I have a function that I'm using to remove unwanted characters (defined as currency symbols) from strings then return the value as a number. When returning the value, I am making the following call:

return parseFloat(x);

The problem I have is that when x == "0.00" I expect to get 0.00 (a float with two decimals) back. What I get instead is simply 0.

I've also tried the following:

return parseFloat(x).toFixed(2);

and still get simply 0 back. Am I missing something? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!