Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 2,237 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System reduced its stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 12.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,722 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,237 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $2,236,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,235,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,011,188,000 after acquiring an additional 92,920 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 6.4% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,264,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,601,968,000 after acquiring an additional 674,046 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the fourth 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 during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 12.6% in the fourth 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 during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 24.3% in the fourth 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 during the period. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays boosted their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $134.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler started coverage on Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Friday, July 18th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $144.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $142.70.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE KMB opened at $136.16 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $45.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.33. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52 week low of $124.10 and a 52 week high of $150.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $130.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $134.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is currently 69.42%.

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.