D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Has $118.60 Million Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 29.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 905,051 shares of the company's stock after selling 376,577 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned about 0.27% of Kimberly-Clark worth $118,598,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 19.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,681,671 shares of the company's stock valued at $239,267,000 after acquiring an additional 273,813 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 6.2% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 416,419 shares of the company's stock valued at $59,248,000 after purchasing an additional 24,383 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 86.5% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 429 shares of the company's stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,866 shares of the company's stock worth $638,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 4,929 shares of the company's stock valued at $646,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on KMB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price 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. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group raised their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $134.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Kimberly-Clark has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $145.08.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of KMB traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $133.93. The stock had a trading volume of 852,889 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,254,813. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $137.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $134.71. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52 week low of $124.10 and a 52 week high of $150.45. The company has a market capitalization of $44.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.74, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 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 business had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.01 earnings per share. On average, 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 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.76%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. Kimberly-Clark's payout ratio is 68.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total value of $1,528,158.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,088,520. This represents a 58.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Katy Chen sold 1,794 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.74, for a total transaction of $234,547.56. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,098 shares in the company, valued at $405,032.52. The trade was a 36.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,872 shares of company stock worth $2,208,684 over the last 90 days. 0.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.