Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) Lifted to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on KMB. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $131.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Kimberly-Clark from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $126.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $111.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $132.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.85.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of Kimberly-Clark stock traded up $1.03 during trading on Monday, hitting $135.51. 1,938,790 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,160,313. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.05, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $132.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $125.90. The stock has a market cap of $45.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.38. Kimberly-Clark has a 12-month low of $116.32 and a 12-month high of $139.75.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 last year, the company earned $1.67 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Kimberly-Clark

In other Kimberly-Clark news, insider Katy Chen sold 454 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.24, for a total transaction of $61,398.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 520 shares in the company, valued at $70,324.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Katy Chen sold 454 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.24, for a total transaction of $61,398.96. Following the sale, the insider now owns 520 shares in the company, valued at $70,324.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Andrew Drexler sold 2,500 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.83, for a total transaction of $342,075.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,101,891.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,395 shares of company stock worth $3,332,776. 0.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kimberly-Clark

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter worth $437,420,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 74.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,442,610 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,189,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,155 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Kimberly-Clark by 19.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,893,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $762,279,000 after buying an additional 944,920 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 14.7% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,996,401 shares of the company’s stock valued at $603,815,000 after acquiring an additional 641,187 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 31.4% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,197,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $265,530,000 after acquiring an additional 524,632 shares during the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.