Benjamin Edwards Inc. Buys 69,809 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 738.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 79,261 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 69,809 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $11,280,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 105.4% in the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 2,042 shares of the company’s stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,048 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. Mather Group LLC. lifted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 33.9% during the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 6,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $821,000 after acquiring an additional 1,608 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 21.8% during the second quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,352 shares of the company’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 24.5% in the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 9,059 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,252,000 after purchasing an additional 1,785 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

KMB has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $153.00 to $151.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.93.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

Shares of KMB stock opened at $139.56 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $138.46 and a 200 day moving average of $139.33. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1 year low of $117.67 and a 1 year high of $149.30. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $46.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.40.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.14. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 198.59% and a net margin of 12.97%. The firm had revenue of $4.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.50%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is currently 63.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total value of $417,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $702,417.53. The trade was a 37.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Kimberly-Clark 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.