Clarity Financial LLC Boosts Stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. $KMB

Clarity Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 19.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,462 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 393 shares during the quarter. Clarity Financial LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $317,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of KMB. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 74.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $851,000 after acquiring an additional 2,765 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 36.5% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 28,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,785,000 after buying an additional 7,729 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 42.7% in the 1st quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 106,600.0% in the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 7,469 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,062,000 after buying an additional 7,462 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 38.6% in the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 13,273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,888,000 after buying an additional 3,699 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on KMB. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Friday, July 18th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $144.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Kimberly-Clark from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, August 4th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $140.40.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE KMB opened at $123.23 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $129.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $132.96. The company has a market capitalization of $40.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.32. 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 $121.02 and a 1 year high of $150.45.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. The business’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.96 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.42%.

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.