Victory Capital Management Inc. Purchases 140,236 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 14.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,100,875 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 140,236 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.33% of Kimberly-Clark worth $156,566,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,142,545 shares of the company's stock worth $4,605,079,000 after purchasing an additional 4,603,787 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,473,459 shares of the company's stock worth $1,113,444,000 after purchasing an additional 797,953 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,529,108 shares of the company's stock worth $986,616,000 after purchasing an additional 417,118 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,653,751 shares of the company's stock worth $740,868,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015,141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the 4th quarter worth $582,592,000. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the insider directly owned 3,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at $518,410.90. This trade represents a 15.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on KMB. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Wall Street Zen cut Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group cut their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $139.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $141.50.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Down 0.3%

NYSE KMB traded down $0.38 on Friday, reaching $127.53. The company had a trading volume of 3,787,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,305,608. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52-week low of $124.10 and a 52-week high of $150.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.89, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. The company's fifty day moving average is $133.91 and its 200 day moving average is $134.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.01 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th were given a dividend of $1.26 per share. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. Kimberly-Clark's dividend payout ratio is presently 68.66%.

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.