Colgate-Palmolive (CL) Competitors

Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Is CL or KMB a better dividend stock?

Colgate-Palmolive pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Kimberly-Clark pays an annual dividend of $5.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Colgate-Palmolive pays out 59.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kimberly-Clark pays out 68.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Colgate-Palmolive has increased its dividend for 63 consecutive years and Kimberly-Clark has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of CL or KMB?

80.4% of Colgate-Palmolive shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.3% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Colgate-Palmolive shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CL or KMB?

Colgate-Palmolive received 12 more outperform votes than Kimberly-Clark when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 50.76% of users gave Colgate-Palmolive an outperform vote while only 49.55% of users gave Kimberly-Clark an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Colgate-Palmolive	Outperform Votes 566 50.76%	Underperform Votes 549 49.24%
Kimberly-Clark	Outperform Votes 554 49.55%	Underperform Votes 564 50.45%

Does the media refer more to CL or KMB?

In the previous week, Colgate-Palmolive had 30 more articles in the media than Kimberly-Clark. MarketBeat recorded 69 mentions for Colgate-Palmolive and 39 mentions for Kimberly-Clark. Colgate-Palmolive's average media sentiment score of 0.88 beat Kimberly-Clark's score of 0.79 indicating that Colgate-Palmolive is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Colgate-Palmolive	31 Very Positive mention(s)	7 Positive mention(s)	19 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Kimberly-Clark	24 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer CL or KMB?

Colgate-Palmolive presently has a consensus price target of $102.39, suggesting a potential upside of 11.06%. Kimberly-Clark has a consensus price target of $145.08, suggesting a potential upside of 10.22%. Given Colgate-Palmolive's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Colgate-Palmolive is more favorable than Kimberly-Clark.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Colgate-Palmolive	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.48
Kimberly-Clark	2 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.15

Is CL or KMB more profitable?

Colgate-Palmolive has a net margin of 14.38% compared to Kimberly-Clark's net margin of 12.69%. Colgate-Palmolive's return on equity of 477.77% beat Kimberly-Clark's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Colgate-Palmolive	14.38%	477.77%	17.98%
Kimberly-Clark	12.69%	201.43%	14.45%

Which has more risk & volatility, CL or KMB?

Colgate-Palmolive has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kimberly-Clark has a beta of 0.37, meaning that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, CL or KMB?

Colgate-Palmolive has higher revenue and earnings than Kimberly-Clark. Kimberly-Clark is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Colgate-Palmolive, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Colgate-Palmolive	$20.10B	3.72	$2.89B	$3.52	26.19
Kimberly-Clark	$19.75B	2.21	$2.55B	$7.34	17.93

Summary

Colgate-Palmolive beats Kimberly-Clark on 18 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.