Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Shares Bought by V Square Quantitative Management LLC

V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,293 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $956,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of KMB. State Street Corp grew its position in Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,304,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,768,367,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,824 shares in the last quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 140.1% in the 4th quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 988,294 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,506,000 after buying an additional 576,610 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 1,427.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 589,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,284,000 after buying an additional 551,158 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,740,525 shares of the company’s stock valued at $358,625,000 after buying an additional 464,615 shares during the period. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 140.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 662,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,278,000 after buying an additional 386,510 shares during the period. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total value of $417,030.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 5,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $702,417.53. The trade was a 37.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $124.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.64.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 1.9 %

KMB opened at $132.79 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $44.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05. The business’s 50 day moving average is $129.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $136.57. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52 week low of $117.93 and a 52 week high of $149.30.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. On average, research analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. This is a positive change from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is presently 64.64%.

Kimberly-Clark Company 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.