Board of the Pension Protection Fund Invests $930,000 in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 7,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $930,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of KMB. State Street Corp grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,304,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,768,367,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083,824 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,060,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,431,443,000 after buying an additional 358,926 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 2.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,675,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,092,388,000 after acquiring an additional 206,671 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,740,525 shares of the company’s stock valued at $358,625,000 after acquiring an additional 464,615 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.8% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,712,258 shares of the company’s stock worth $385,900,000 after acquiring an additional 20,953 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on KMB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $153.00 to $151.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays upped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total value of $417,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $702,417.53. This represents a 37.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:KMB opened at $126.22 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $42.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.41. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $138.22. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52-week low of $117.67 and a 52-week high of $149.30. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $4.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.06 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.97% and a return on equity of 198.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.74 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were issued a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.87%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.29%.

Kimberly-Clark Company 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.