Northern Trust Corp Boosts Stock Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 12.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,974,239 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 445,552 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $520,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,142,545 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,605,079,000 after purchasing an additional 4,603,787 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark in the 4th quarter worth about $582,592,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in Kimberly-Clark by 163.1% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,142,749 shares of the company’s stock worth $280,786,000 after buying an additional 1,328,341 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 21.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,653,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $740,868,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015,141 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the 4th quarter valued at about $127,436,000. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Katy Chen sold 1,794 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.74, for a total value of $234,547.56. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $405,032.52. The trade was a 36.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total value of $1,528,158.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,088,520. The trade was a 58.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,132 shares of company stock worth $2,112,706 in the last three months. 0.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KMB has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $134.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $158.00 to $156.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. TD Cowen cut Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.08.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE KMB opened at $130.53 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.54. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1 year low of $124.10 and a 1 year high of $150.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $139.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $135.34. The stock has a market cap of $43.31 billion, a PE ratio of 17.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.37.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.90 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.01 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.