Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Raises Stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. $KMB

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,151 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 429 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $2,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in KMB. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 2,982.8% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,384,318 shares of the company’s stock valued at $196,878,000 after acquiring an additional 1,339,413 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the first quarter valued at about $106,458,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 270.2% in the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 984,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $140,043,000 after acquiring an additional 718,720 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 41.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,351,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,406,000 after acquiring an additional 687,868 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 6.4% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,264,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,601,968,000 after acquiring an additional 674,046 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on KMB. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $127.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $149.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.00.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

Shares of KMB opened at $119.57 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05. The stock has a market cap of $39.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.84, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a 50-day moving average of $128.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $132.10. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 12-month low of $119.36 and a 12-month high of $150.45.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its 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 company had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.85 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.96 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is presently 69.42%.

About Kimberly-Clark

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.