J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Purchases 8,437 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 119.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 15,495 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 8,437 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $2,204,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 4,603,787 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the 4th quarter valued at about $582,592,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 10,975.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,902,050 shares of the company's stock valued at $270,510,000 after buying an additional 1,884,877 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 163.1% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,142,749 shares of the company's stock valued at $280,786,000 after buying an additional 1,328,341 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trinity Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the 1st quarter valued at about $181,762,000. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on KMB. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $134.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $139.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $141.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kimberly-Clark

In related news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total transaction of $95,978.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 3,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $518,410.90. This represents a 15.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.64% of the company's stock.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of KMB opened at $126.71 on Tuesday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52-week low of $124.10 and a 52-week high of $150.45. 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's fifty day moving average is $133.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $134.62. The stock has a market cap of $42.04 billion, a PE ratio of 16.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35.

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

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th were paid a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.98%. Kimberly-Clark's payout ratio is 68.66%.

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.

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