Community Bank N.A. Reduces Stock Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Community Bank N.A. decreased its holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,213 shares of the company’s stock after selling 481 shares during the quarter. Community Bank N.A.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $1,207,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,304,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,768,367,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,824 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $127,436,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 140.1% during the fourth quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 988,294 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,506,000 after acquiring an additional 576,610 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 1,427.4% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 589,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,284,000 after acquiring an additional 551,158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,589,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,387,709,000 after acquiring an additional 529,223 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on KMB. Barclays reduced their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $124.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $158.00 price target (down from $161.00) on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Kimberly-Clark has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.64.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $138.31 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.32, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.36. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $123.84 and a fifty-two week high of $150.45. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $134.84 and a 200 day moving average of $136.26.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. As a group, research analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.26 per share. This is a positive change from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.75%.

Insider Transactions at Kimberly-Clark

In other 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 value of $1,528,158.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,088,520. This trade represents a 58.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

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.