TD Cowen Begins Coverage on Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB)

TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) in a research report report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $161.00 price objective on the stock.

KMB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $111.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a sell rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $136.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $145.67.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of KMB stock opened at $141.81 on Tuesday. Kimberly-Clark has a 1 year low of $116.32 and a 1 year high of $145.62. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $137.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $130.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.59, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The company has a market cap of $47.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.07, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.37.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.25. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 11.28% and a return on equity of 223.55%. The firm had revenue of $5.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is currently 89.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.83, for a total transaction of $342,075.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,891.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.83, for a total transaction of $342,075.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,891.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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 dated Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.59, for a total transaction of $866,420.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 33,649 shares in the company, valued at $4,562,467.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,462 shares of company stock worth $7,206,653 in the last 90 days. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kimberly-Clark

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 19.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,893,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $762,279,000 after purchasing an additional 944,920 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Kimberly-Clark in the 4th quarter worth about $437,420,000. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,269,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $293,559,000 after acquiring an additional 342,790 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,720,051 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,093,000 after acquiring an additional 48,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,487,835 shares of the company’s stock worth $192,451,000 after acquiring an additional 132,576 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Kimberly-Clark Company Profile

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.