Capital International Inc. CA Acquires 6,198 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Capital International Inc. CA lifted its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 39.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,040 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 6,198 shares during the quarter. Capital International Inc. CA's holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $2,888,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,142,545 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,605,079,000 after acquiring an additional 4,603,787 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,589,967 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,387,709,000 after purchasing an additional 529,223 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,473,459 shares of the company's stock worth $1,113,444,000 after buying an additional 797,953 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,653,751 shares of the company's stock worth $740,868,000 after buying an additional 1,015,141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the 4th quarter valued at $582,592,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup reduced their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen downgraded Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $145.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $134.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $145.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total transaction of $1,528,158.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,088,520. This represents a 58.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE KMB traded down $0.76 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $131.58. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,626,979 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,255,121. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $139.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $135.61. The stock has a market cap of $43.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.43, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.37. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $124.10 and a 12 month high of $150.45.

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

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.83%. This is a boost from Kimberly-Clark's previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. Kimberly-Clark's payout ratio is currently 68.66%.

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.