Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Short Interest Update

Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) saw a significant drop in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,080,000 shares, a drop of 21.8% from the February 28th total of 5,220,000 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,220,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on KMB shares. StockNews.com raised Kimberly-Clark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $138.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $124.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.85.

Insider Activity

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $350,000.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 2,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $357,420. This represents a 49.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kimberly-Clark

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KMB. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Kimberly-Clark by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,142,545 shares of the company’s stock valued at $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 during the fourth quarter worth about $582,592,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 163.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,142,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,786,000 after purchasing an additional 1,328,341 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,304,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,768,367,000 after purchasing an additional 1,083,824 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 21.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,653,751 shares of the company’s stock worth $740,868,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015,141 shares during the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE:KMB traded up $0.04 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $143.07. 1,845,370 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,134,421. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $136.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $135.92. Kimberly-Clark has a 52 week low of $123.84 and a 52 week high of $150.45. The company has a market cap of $47.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.36.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.26 dividend. This is a boost from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.52%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is presently 66.75%.

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.