Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) Downgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Tuesday morning.

KMB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Kimberly-Clark in a report on Monday. They set a neutral rating and a $146.00 price objective for the company. HSBC boosted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $115.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $141.64.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

KMB opened at $139.37 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $135.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $127.29. Kimberly-Clark has a 1 year low of $116.32 and a 1 year high of $142.20. The company has a market capitalization of $46.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.05, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $5.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.08 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 250.28% and a net margin of 9.05%. Kimberly-Clark’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.67 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.50%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is currently 89.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kimberly-Clark

In other news, insider Jeffrey P. Melucci sold 6,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.59, for a total transaction of $866,420.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,649 shares in the company, valued at $4,562,467.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Katy Chen sold 454 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.24, for a total transaction of $61,398.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 520 shares in the company, valued at $70,324.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jeffrey P. Melucci sold 6,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.59, for a total transaction of $866,420.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,562,467.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,395 shares of company stock worth $3,332,776 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Kimberly-Clark

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of KMB. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the fourth quarter worth $437,420,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 19.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,893,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $762,279,000 after purchasing an additional 944,920 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 14.7% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,996,401 shares of the company’s stock worth $603,815,000 after purchasing an additional 641,187 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 31.4% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,197,184 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,530,000 after acquiring an additional 524,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 23.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,926,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $234,114,000 after acquiring an additional 370,094 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets personal care and consumer tissue products in the United States. It operates through three segments: Personal Care, Consumer Tissue, and K-C Professional. The company's Personal Care segment offers disposable diapers, training and youth pants, swimpants, baby wipes, feminine and incontinence care products, reusable underwear, and other related products under the Huggies, Pull-Ups, Little Swimmers, GoodNites, DryNites, Sweety, Kotex, U by Kotex, Intimus, Thinx, Poise, Depend, Plenitud, Softex, and other brand names.