Nexus Investment Management ULC Increases Stock Position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Nexus Investment Management ULC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 36.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,584 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 684 shares during the period. Nexus Investment Management ULC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $367,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter worth $582,592,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 163.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,142,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,786,000 after acquiring an additional 1,328,341 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings 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 period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter worth about $127,436,000. 76.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.08.

Insider Transactions at Kimberly-Clark

In related news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total value of $95,978.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $518,410.90. The trade was a 15.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE KMB opened at $143.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $47.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The business has a 50-day moving average of $137.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $135.25. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1 year low of $124.10 and a 1 year high of $150.45.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.90 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business 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 Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be given a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.51%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.66%.

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.