Bell Bank Buys 1,532 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Bell Bank grew its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 3.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 44,547 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,532 shares during the quarter. Bell Bank’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $6,335,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of KMB. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 74.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,494 shares of the company’s stock valued at $851,000 after purchasing an additional 2,765 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 630.9% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 25,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,360,000 after acquiring an additional 22,131 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 11,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,535,000 after acquiring an additional 1,624 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 27.1% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 15,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,911,000 after acquiring an additional 3,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $130.67 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $136.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.16. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52-week low of $124.10 and a 52-week high of $150.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.36 billion, a PE ratio of 17.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.38.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.01 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

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 issued a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.86%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is 68.66%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total transaction of $95,978.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KMB has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $158.00 to $156.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.73.

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.