Avantax Planning Partners Inc. Increases Stock Position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Avantax Planning Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 9.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,261 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,004 shares during the quarter. Avantax Planning Partners Inc.'s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $3,166,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,142,545 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,605,079,000 after purchasing an additional 4,603,787 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,473,459 shares of the company's stock worth $1,113,444,000 after acquiring an additional 797,953 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,529,108 shares of the company's stock valued at $986,616,000 after acquiring an additional 417,118 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,653,751 shares of the company's stock valued at $740,868,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015,141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter worth about $582,592,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kimberly-Clark

In related news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total transaction of $95,978.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 3,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $518,410.90. The trade was a 15.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on KMB. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays reduced their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $158.00 to $156.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $143.50.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

Shares of Kimberly-Clark stock traded up $0.17 on Friday, reaching $132.53. 1,015,997 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,204,333. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.97 billion, a PE ratio of 17.55, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1-year low of $124.10 and a 1-year high of $150.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $134.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $134.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.90 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.01 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th were paid a dividend of $1.26 per share. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. Kimberly-Clark's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.66%.

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.