Contrasting Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB) and Haleon (NYSE:HLN)

Haleon (NYSE:HLN) and Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Haleon has a beta of 0.12, indicating that its share price is 88% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kimberly-Clark has a beta of 0.26, indicating that its share price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Haleon pays an annual dividend of $0.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Kimberly-Clark pays an annual dividend of $5.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Haleon pays out 30.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kimberly-Clark pays out 87.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Kimberly-Clark has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years. Kimberly-Clark is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Haleon and Kimberly-Clark, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Haleon	2	4	3	2	2.45
Kimberly-Clark	1	11	4	1	2.29

Kimberly-Clark has a consensus target price of $117.93, indicating a potential upside of 9.28%. Given Kimberly-Clark’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Kimberly-Clark is more favorable than Haleon.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

6.7% of Haleon shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.3% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Haleon and Kimberly-Clark’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Haleon	N/A	N/A	N/A
Kimberly-Clark	11.79%	143.92%	14.21%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Haleon and Kimberly-Clark”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Haleon	$14.54 billion	2.90	$2.20 billion	$0.39	24.59
Kimberly-Clark	$16.58 billion	2.16	$2.02 billion	$5.88	18.35

Haleon has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Kimberly-Clark. Kimberly-Clark is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Haleon, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Kimberly-Clark beats Haleon on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Haleon

Haleon plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and sale of various consumer healthcare products in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides oral health products, such as toothpastes, mouth washes, and denture care products under the Sensodyne, Polident, Parodontax, Biotene brands; and vitamins, minerals, and supplements under Centrum, Emergen-C, Caltrate brands. It also offers various over-the-counter products comprising nasal drops, and cold, flu, and allergy relief products under Otrivine, Theraflu, and Flonase brands for respiratory issues; anti-inflammatory and pain relief products under Voltaren, Panadol, and Advil brands; and antacids and antihistamine products under TUMS, ENO, and Fenistil brands for digestive health and other issues. The company was formerly known as DRVW 2022 plc and changed its name to Haleon plc in February 2022. Haleon plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Weybridge, the United Kingdom.

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. Its Consumer Tissue segment provides facial and bathroom tissues, paper towels, napkins, and related products under the Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, Viva, Andrex, Scottex, Neve, and other brand names. The company’s K-C Professional segment offers wipers, tissues, towels, apparel, personal protective equipment, soaps, and sanitizers under the Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech, and KleenGuard brands. It also sells household use products directly to supermarkets, mass merchandisers, drugstores, warehouse clubs, variety and department stores, and other retail outlets, as well as through other distributors and e-commerce; and away-from-home use products directly to distributors, manufacturing, lodging, office building, food service, and public facilities, as well as through e-commerce. Kimberly-Clark Corporation was founded in 1872 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.