Annex Advisory Services LLC Trims Stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Annex Advisory Services LLC lowered its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 2.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,380 shares of the company’s stock after selling 84 shares during the period. Annex Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of KMB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 15.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,142,545 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,605,079,000 after buying an additional 4,603,787 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter valued at about $582,592,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 10,975.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,902,050 shares of the company’s stock valued at $270,510,000 after buying an additional 1,884,877 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,328,341 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,653,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $740,868,000 after buying an additional 1,015,141 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on KMB. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $158.00 to $156.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.08.

Insider Transactions at Kimberly-Clark

In related news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now owns 3,997 shares in the company, valued at $518,410.90. This represents a 15.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of NYSE KMB opened at $135.30 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $137.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.48. The company has a market cap of $44.89 billion, a PE ratio of 17.92, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52-week low of $124.10 and a 52-week high of $150.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.90 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.01 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a $1.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.73%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.66%.

Kimberly-Clark 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.