Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the fifteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $149.93.

Several brokerages have recently commented on KMB. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $153.00 to $151.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $138.00 to $134.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KMB. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 19.1% during the 1st 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. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 13,720.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 641,524 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,659,000 after purchasing an additional 636,882 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 48.4% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,545,147 shares of the company’s stock valued at $213,539,000 after buying an additional 503,839 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 22.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,934,655 shares of the company’s stock worth $267,383,000 after buying an additional 354,501 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 17.8% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,269,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $293,559,000 after buying an additional 342,790 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of KMB opened at $131.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $43.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.40. The business’s 50-day moving average is $141.37 and its 200-day moving average is $139.26. Kimberly-Clark has a fifty-two week low of $117.67 and a fifty-two week high of $149.30.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.14. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.97% and a return on equity of 198.59%. The company had revenue of $4.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Company 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.