Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) Rating Lowered to "Hold" at TD Cowen

TD Cowen cut shares of Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. TD Cowen currently has $145.00 target price on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $175.00 to $161.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $147.57.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:KMB traded down $0.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $126.63. 1,820,157 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,815,410. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.55. Kimberly-Clark has a 12 month low of $117.67 and a 12 month high of $149.30. The company has a market cap of $42.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $133.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $138.60.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.14. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 198.59% and a net margin of 12.97%. The firm had revenue of $4.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.74 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. Kimberly-Clark's payout ratio is currently 63.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total transaction of $417,030.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KMB. Farmers Trust Co. grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Farmers Trust Co. now owns 21,616 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,833,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares in the last quarter. InvesTrust bought a new position in Kimberly-Clark in the 4th quarter valued at $420,000. Peoples Bank KS increased its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 24.7% in the fourth quarter. Peoples Bank KS now owns 2,427 shares of the company's stock worth $318,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the period. Range Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 148.8% in the fourth quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 18,209 shares of the company's stock worth $2,386,000 after buying an additional 10,890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co raised its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 69,648 shares of the company's stock worth $9,127,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company's stock.

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.