Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 4,500 Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 4,500 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $590,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Investor s Fiduciary Advisor Network LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $522,000. Gen Wealth Partners Inc raised its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc now owns 4,021 shares of the company's stock valued at $527,000 after buying an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 151,024 shares of the company's stock valued at $19,790,000 after purchasing an additional 21,921 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 239.4% in the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 133,699 shares of the company's stock valued at $17,613,000 after purchasing an additional 94,309 shares during the period. Finally, First Manhattan CO. LLC. grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 21,272 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,961,000 after purchasing an additional 1,028 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Kimberly-Clark

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total transaction of $1,528,158.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,720 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,520. This represents a 58.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Katy Chen sold 1,794 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.74, for a total transaction of $234,547.56. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 3,098 shares in the company, valued at $405,032.52. This trade represents a 36.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,872 shares of company stock valued at $2,208,684. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company's stock.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.3%

KMB traded up $0.37 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $141.16. 465,539 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,159,263. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $137.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $134.80. The company has a market cap of $46.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.71, a PEG 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.90 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.01 EPS. As a group, 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $1.26 per share. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. Kimberly-Clark's payout ratio is 68.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

KMB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered their target price 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $158.00 to $156.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Kimberly-Clark currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $145.08.

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.