Kimberly-Clark Co. $KMB Shares Sold by Vest Financial LLC

Vest Financial LLC cut its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 402,040 shares of the company’s stock after selling 26,537 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $51,831,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KMB. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 2,982.8% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,384,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $196,878,000 after acquiring an additional 1,339,413 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Kimberly-Clark during the first quarter worth about $106,458,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 270.2% during the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 984,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,043,000 after acquiring an additional 718,720 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 41.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,351,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,406,000 after acquiring an additional 687,868 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 6.4% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,264,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,601,968,000 after acquiring an additional 674,046 shares during the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KMB opened at $119.57 on Monday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $119.36 and a fifty-two week high of $150.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $128.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $131.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05. The firm has a market cap of $39.67 billion, a PE ratio of 15.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.30.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.25. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%.The firm had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.96 EPS. Kimberly-Clark’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $1.26 per share. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays dropped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $149.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $127.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.00.

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.