Sarasin & Partners LLP Sells 576,610 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Sarasin & Partners LLP lowered its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 58.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 411,684 shares of the company's stock after selling 576,610 shares during the period. Sarasin & Partners LLP owned about 0.12% of Kimberly-Clark worth $58,574,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of KMB. SageView Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,706 shares of the company's stock valued at $224,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Park National Corp OH grew its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 3,031 shares of the company's stock valued at $431,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 1,637 shares of the company's stock valued at $208,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,321 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,221,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KMB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $134.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $145.08.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

NYSE:KMB traded down $2.74 on Thursday, hitting $135.69. The company had a trading volume of 1,739,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,170,828. 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 52 week low of $124.10 and a 52 week high of $150.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $137.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $135.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.97, a PEG 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.04. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.01 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a $1.26 dividend. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. Kimberly-Clark's payout ratio is 68.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total transaction of $95,978.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at $518,410.90. This trade represents a 15.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company's stock.

Kimberly-Clark 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.