Rhumbline Advisers Boosts Stock Position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 728,728 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,273 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $95,492,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 77.4% in 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. Pensionfund Sabic grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 45.5% during the 4th quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 12,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,677,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 19.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,681,671 shares of the company’s stock worth $239,267,000 after purchasing an additional 273,813 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 347,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,409,000 after purchasing an additional 21,339 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aprio Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on KMB. Citigroup lowered their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Friday, January 24th. TD Cowen cut Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 price objective (down from $161.00) on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.64.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kimberly-Clark

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

Kimberly-Clark Stock Down 1.9 %

Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $132.79 on Friday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $117.93 and a fifty-two week high of $149.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $44.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.59, a PEG ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.51.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. Equities research analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.80%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.75%.

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.