Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Raises Stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. $KMB

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 2.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 16,151 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 429 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $2,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of KMB. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 74.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $851,000 after buying an additional 2,765 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 19.3% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 5,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $826,000 after purchasing an additional 939 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 6.1% in the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 4,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $570,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. CX Institutional grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 8.4% in the first quarter. CX Institutional now owns 6,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $924,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the period. Finally, Zhang Financial LLC grew its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 2.6% in the first quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 4,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $579,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on KMB shares. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $118.00 to $113.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $127.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $149.00 to $145.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.00.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE KMB opened at $119.57 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $128.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $132.10. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52 week low of $119.36 and a 52 week high of $150.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05. The stock has a market cap of $39.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.84, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.30.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.25. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict 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 was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a dividend of $1.26 per share. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is presently 69.42%.

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.