Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Purchases 234 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,592 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 234 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $2,043,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Activity at Kimberly-Clark

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total transaction of $1,528,158.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 7,720 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,520. This represents a 58.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.62% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $141.24 on Wednesday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 12 month low of $122.99 and a 12 month high of $149.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $131.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $136.49. The company has a market cap of $46.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.71, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.41.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 EPS 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.26 dividend. This is an increase from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.57%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.