Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.25 EPS

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.25, RTT News reports. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 11.28% and a return on equity of 237.13%. The business had revenue of $5.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.7 %

KMB traded up $0.97 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $141.48. 659,036 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,153,178. Kimberly-Clark has a 1 year low of $116.32 and a 1 year high of $145.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.64 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $137.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $129.98.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were given a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is currently 89.71%.

Insider Activity

In other Kimberly-Clark news, insider Jeffrey P. Melucci sold 6,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.59, for a total value of $866,420.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,562,467.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Kimberly-Clark news, insider Jeffrey P. Melucci sold 6,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.59, for a total value of $866,420.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,562,467.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Katy Chen sold 454 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.24, for a total value of $61,398.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 520 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $70,324.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,217 shares of company stock worth $1,936,660 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on KMB. TD Cowen started coverage on Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $161.00 target price on the stock. HSBC increased their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $146.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI raised shares of Kimberly-Clark from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $133.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.67.

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.