Hartford Investment Management Co. Sells 361 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Hartford Investment Management Co. reduced its stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 1.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 20,214 shares of the company’s stock after selling 361 shares during the quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $2,875,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,529,108 shares of the company’s stock worth $986,616,000 after acquiring an additional 417,118 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,015,141 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,974,239 shares of the company’s stock worth $520,784,000 after acquiring an additional 445,552 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 24.3% in the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,430,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $449,549,000 after acquiring an additional 670,162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,022,131 shares of the company’s stock worth $396,020,000 after acquiring an additional 309,873 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on KMB shares. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $134.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Friday, July 18th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $144.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $139.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $140.90.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of KMB opened at $130.64 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $43.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a twelve month low of $124.10 and a twelve month high of $150.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05. The company has a 50 day moving average of $131.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $134.56.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.25. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. The company’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.96 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $1.26 dividend. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.66%.

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.