Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Receives $147.57 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the fifteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have given a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $143.71.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on KMB. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. TD Cowen cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $151.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of KMB stock opened at $127.33 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $42.46 billion, a PE ratio of 16.51, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.41. Kimberly-Clark has a 52-week low of $117.67 and a 52-week high of $149.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $132.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.14. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 198.59% and a net margin of 12.97%. The business had revenue of $4.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. Kimberly-Clark’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.31 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.83%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is 63.29%.

Insider Activity at Kimberly-Clark

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total value of $417,030.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares in the company, valued at $702,417.53. The trade was a 37.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kimberly-Clark

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bill Few Associates Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Bill Few Associates Inc. now owns 4,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $555,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 27,143 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,438,000 after acquiring an additional 4,942 shares in the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 2,087 shares of the company’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the period. Eads & Heald Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Eads & Heald Wealth Management now owns 5,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $752,000 after buying an additional 402 shares during the period. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 183.4% in the 4th quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 4,313 shares of the company’s stock worth $565,000 after buying an additional 2,791 shares during the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.