Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 43,293 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Victory Capital Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 960,639 shares of the company’s stock after selling 43,293 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $125,882,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. SWS Partners boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. SWS Partners now owns 10,741 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,420,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,614 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 11,971 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,564,000 after acquiring an additional 916 shares in the last quarter. Patten Group Inc. boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Patten Group Inc. now owns 63,254 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,289,000 after acquiring an additional 813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 15,592 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,043,000 after buying an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on KMB. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. TD Cowen lowered shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $124.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $143.64.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $141.79 on Thursday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1 year low of $123.02 and a 1 year high of $149.31. The firm has a market cap of $47.03 billion, a PE ratio of 18.78, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $131.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $136.52.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. Analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.55%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is presently 66.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kimberly-Clark

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 2,500 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $350,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 2,553 shares in the company, valued at $357,420. The trade was a 49.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.