Advocate Group LLC Lowers Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. $KMB

Advocate Group LLC cut its holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 1.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 52,855 shares of the company’s stock after selling 985 shares during the quarter. Advocate Group LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $6,814,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,235,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,011,188,000 after purchasing an additional 92,920 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,264,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,601,968,000 after purchasing an additional 674,046 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,095,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,151,309,000 after purchasing an additional 566,152 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,827,666 shares of the company’s stock worth $828,811,000 after purchasing an additional 173,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,460,069 shares of the company’s stock worth $492,091,000 after purchasing an additional 29,453 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $118.00 to $113.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Barclays decreased their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $127.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.00.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

NYSE:KMB opened at $119.57 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $128.18 and its 200 day moving average is $132.05. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $119.36 and a fifty-two week high of $150.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.67 billion, a PE ratio of 15.84, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.30. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.25. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%.The company had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.96 EPS. Kimberly-Clark’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a $1.26 dividend. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is 69.42%.

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.