Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Shares Bought by Lazard Asset Management LLC

Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 9.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 664,297 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 55,395 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned about 0.20% of Kimberly-Clark worth $87,049,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 77.4% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock worth $1,807,000 after buying an additional 6,016 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 19.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,681,671 shares of the company's stock valued at $239,267,000 after purchasing an additional 273,813 shares during the period. Aprio Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Kimberly-Clark by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,792 shares of the company's stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in Kimberly-Clark by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 728,728 shares of the company's stock worth $95,492,000 after purchasing an additional 3,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 26.4% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 9,574 shares of the company's stock worth $1,255,000 after purchasing an additional 2,002 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on KMB shares. Evercore ISI dropped their price target 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $134.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $145.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kimberly-Clark news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total value of $95,978.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,997 shares in the company, valued at $518,410.90. This represents a 15.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total transaction of $1,528,158.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 7,720 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,088,520. This represents a 58.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 15,872 shares of company stock worth $2,208,684. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company's stock.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 1.4%

KMB stock traded up $1.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $139.33. The company had a trading volume of 2,310,026 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,156,329. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $137.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $134.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $46.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $124.10 and a fifty-two week high of $150.45.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB - Get Free Report) last issued its 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.01 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be given a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.62%. Kimberly-Clark's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.66%.

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.