Marshall Wace LLP Increases Stock Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 9.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 281,530 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 23,725 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP owned about 0.08% of Kimberly-Clark worth $36,892,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Marshall Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Kimberly-Clark in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Kimberly-Clark in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KMB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $138.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. StockNews.com raised Kimberly-Clark from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Citigroup cut their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Kimberly-Clark has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $146.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 2,500 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $350,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 2,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $357,420. The trade was a 49.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

NYSE KMB traded down $0.50 during trading on Thursday, reaching $132.90. The company's stock had a trading volume of 989,246 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,227,382. The business's fifty day moving average price is $139.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.67. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a twelve month low of $124.10 and a twelve month high of $150.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $44.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.60, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.37.

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

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.26 dividend. This is a boost from Kimberly-Clark's previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.79%. Kimberly-Clark's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.75%.

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.