Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Shares Bought by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 26.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 9,574 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,002 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $1,255,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of KMB. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,304,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,768,367,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,824 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 1,427.4% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 589,771 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,284,000 after acquiring an additional 551,158 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 48.4% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,545,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $213,539,000 after acquiring an additional 503,839 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,740,525 shares of the company’s stock worth $358,625,000 after acquiring an additional 464,615 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 140.0% in the third quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 662,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,278,000 after acquiring an additional 386,510 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on KMB shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $175.00 to $161.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $124.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $143.71.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

Shares of KMB stock opened at $127.33 on Tuesday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 12-month low of $117.67 and a 12-month high of $149.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.41. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $132.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $137.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.55.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 prior year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.31 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 value of $417,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares in the company, valued at $702,417.53. This represents a 37.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Kimberly-Clark 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.