Analysts Set Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Price Target at $145.08

Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the thirteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $145.08.

KMB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. StockNews.com cut Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of KMB stock opened at $141.01 on Monday. Kimberly-Clark has a fifty-two week low of $124.10 and a fifty-two week high of $150.45. The stock has a market cap of $46.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.68, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $137.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.04. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.01 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a $1.26 dividend. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.57%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.66%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total value of $1,528,158.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,520. The trade was a 58.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total value of $95,978.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,997 shares in the company, valued at $518,410.90. This represents a 15.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,872 shares of company stock valued at $2,208,684 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kimberly-Clark

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 77.4% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,807,000 after buying an additional 6,016 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 19.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,681,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $239,267,000 after buying an additional 273,813 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 728,728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,492,000 after buying an additional 3,273 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 26.4% during the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 9,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,255,000 after buying an additional 2,002 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 464,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,615,000 after buying an additional 12,768 shares during the period. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.