Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Shares Sold by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky cut its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,919 shares of the company’s stock after selling 252 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $3,266,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 15.1% during 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 during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,589,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,387,709,000 after buying an additional 529,223 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,473,459 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,113,444,000 after buying an additional 797,953 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised 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 last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Kimberly-Clark during the 4th quarter worth approximately $582,592,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on KMB shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $138.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. StockNews.com raised shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. TD Cowen cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $146.57.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of KMB stock opened at $133.61 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $44.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.70, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $124.10 and a fifty-two week high of $150.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $139.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $135.67.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.04. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.01 EPS. On average, analysts forecast 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 was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.77%. This is a positive change from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total transaction of $1,528,158.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 7,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,520. This trade represents a 58.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.64% 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.