EP Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 24.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,812 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,028 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $2,961,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KMB. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,304,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,768,367,000 after buying an additional 1,083,824 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 13,720.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 641,524 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,659,000 after acquiring an additional 636,882 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in Kimberly-Clark by 48.4% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,545,147 shares of the company’s stock valued at $213,539,000 after acquiring an additional 503,839 shares in the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 140.0% during the third quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 662,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,278,000 after purchasing an additional 386,510 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 3.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,060,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,431,443,000 after purchasing an additional 358,926 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $153.00 to $151.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays increased 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.93.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 2.5 %

NYSE:KMB opened at $134.73 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $44.93 billion, a PE ratio of 17.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.40. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52-week low of $117.67 and a 52-week high of $149.30. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $138.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $139.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.14. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.97% and a return on equity of 198.59%. The business had revenue of $4.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.62%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is 63.29%.

Insider Transactions at Kimberly-Clark

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $702,417.53. This represents a 37.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

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.