Vontobel Holding Ltd. Decreases Stock Position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) by 20.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 98,885 shares of the company's stock after selling 25,711 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.'s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $12,958,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of KMB. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 77.4% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock worth $1,807,000 after purchasing an additional 6,016 shares during the period. Pensionfund Sabic lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 45.5% in the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 12,800 shares of the company's stock worth $1,677,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 19.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,681,671 shares of the company's stock worth $239,267,000 after buying an additional 273,813 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 6.5% in the third quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 347,269 shares of the company's stock worth $49,409,000 after buying an additional 21,339 shares during the period. Finally, Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,792 shares of the company's stock worth $366,000 after buying an additional 466 shares during the period. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KMB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $158.00 price objective (down from $161.00) on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered shares of Kimberly-Clark from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $145.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $143.64.

Insider Activity at Kimberly-Clark

In related news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total transaction of $417,030.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 5,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $702,417.53. The trade was a 37.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

Shares of Kimberly-Clark stock traded up $2.99 on Tuesday, hitting $135.66. 2,584,167 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,133,350. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.24 billion, a PE ratio of 17.97, a PEG ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.41. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1 year low of $118.62 and a 1 year high of $149.30. 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.26 per share. This is a boost from Kimberly-Clark's previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.72%. Kimberly-Clark's payout ratio is 64.64%.

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.