Avantax Planning Partners Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Avantax Planning Partners Inc. increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 9.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,261 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,004 shares during the period. Avantax Planning Partners Inc.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $3,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of KMB. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 46.4% in the first quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,770,000 after purchasing an additional 3,944 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 464,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,615,000 after acquiring an additional 12,768 shares during the period. Unigestion Holding SA raised its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 8.2% during the first quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 127,623 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,145,000 after acquiring an additional 9,643 shares during the last quarter. Farmers Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 108.6% during the first quarter. Farmers Trust Co. now owns 45,088 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,412,000 after acquiring an additional 23,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 106,600.0% during the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 7,469 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,062,000 after purchasing an additional 7,462 shares during the period. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kimberly-Clark

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 directly owned 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 company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on KMB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $124.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.50.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KMB opened at $132.53 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $134.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.71. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $124.10 and a fifty-two week high of $150.45. The company has a market capitalization of $43.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.04. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.01 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th were paid a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.80%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.