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 business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, risk and valuation.

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

80.4% of Colgate-Palmolive shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.3% of Kimberly-Clark shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Colgate-Palmolive shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Kimberly-Clark shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, 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	$3.54	26.03
Kimberly-Clark	$19.75B	2.21	$2.55B	$7.34	17.95

Which has more volatility and risk, CL or KMB?

Colgate-Palmolive has a beta of 0.37, indicating that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kimberly-Clark has a beta of 0.38, indicating that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is CL or KMB more profitable?

Colgate-Palmolive has a net margin of 14.52% compared to Kimberly-Clark's net margin of 12.69%. Colgate-Palmolive's return on equity of 461.04% beat Kimberly-Clark's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Colgate-Palmolive	14.52%	461.04%	18.14%
Kimberly-Clark	12.69%	201.43%	14.45%

Do analysts recommend CL or KMB?

Colgate-Palmolive currently has a consensus price target of $101.69, suggesting a potential upside of 10.35%. Kimberly-Clark has a consensus price target of $143.50, suggesting a potential upside of 8.89%. Given Colgate-Palmolive's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly 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)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.42
Kimberly-Clark	2 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.09

Does the media prefer CL or KMB?

In the previous week, Colgate-Palmolive had 5 more articles in the media than Kimberly-Clark. MarketBeat recorded 35 mentions for Colgate-Palmolive and 30 mentions for Kimberly-Clark. Colgate-Palmolive's average media sentiment score of 1.53 beat Kimberly-Clark's score of 1.36 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	32 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Kimberly-Clark	27 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

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 58.8% 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 raised its dividend for 63 consecutive years and Kimberly-Clark has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years.

Summary

Colgate-Palmolive beats Kimberly-Clark on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.