Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) VP Sells $342,075.00 in Stock

Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) VP Andrew Drexler sold 2,500 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.83, for a total value of $342,075.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,101,891.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:KMB opened at $136.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $45.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.02, a PEG ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $127.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $123.33. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 12-month low of $116.32 and a 12-month high of $146.15.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.40. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 250.28% and a net margin of 9.05%. The business had revenue of $5.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.67 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 89.71%.

Institutional Trading of Kimberly-Clark

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. WBI Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.7% in the first quarter. WBI Investments LLC now owns 11,832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,530,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 15.4% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC now owns 20,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,593,000 after acquiring an additional 2,671 shares in the last quarter. Csenge Advisory Group lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.6% in the first quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 2,332 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. FDx Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 4.6% in the first quarter. FDx Advisors Inc. now owns 4,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $589,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TFB Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 8.9% in the first quarter. TFB Advisors LLC now owns 1,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $268,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on KMB. Citigroup lifted their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $111.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI raised Kimberly-Clark from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $133.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $115.00 to $123.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $131.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.85.

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.