Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Increases Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. $KMB

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. by 7.5%, owning approximately 2.44% of the company valued at over $1.15 billion after acquiring additional shares in Q1.
• Several institutional investors, including Citigroup Inc. and OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd, significantly increased their holdings in Kimberly-Clark during the same period.
• Wall Street analysts have varied opinions on Kimberly-Clark, with target price adjustments reflecting a mix of upgrades and downgrades, maintaining an average rating of "Hold" and consensus price target of $142.70.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 7.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,095,260 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 566,152 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 2.44% of Kimberly-Clark worth $1,151,309,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 74.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,494 shares of the company's stock valued at $851,000 after purchasing an additional 2,765 shares during the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,559 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,908,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 15,212 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,993,000 after buying an additional 2,264 shares during the last quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 91,717 shares of the company's stock worth $12,019,000 after buying an additional 1,829 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 26,064 shares of the company's stock worth $3,415,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on KMB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Kimberly-Clark from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $139.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays raised their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $134.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Friday, July 18th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $144.00 price target on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $142.70.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.4%

KMB traded up $0.52 on Friday, hitting $133.49. 1,842,583 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,320,331. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $130.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.23. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $124.10 and a twelve month high of $150.45. The company has a market cap of $44.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.33.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.96 EPS. Kimberly-Clark's revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $1.26 per share. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. Kimberly-Clark's payout ratio is 69.42%.

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.