Bill Few Associates Inc. Increases Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Bill Few Associates Inc. increased its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,235 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the period. Bill Few Associates Inc.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $555,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of KMB. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in Kimberly-Clark by 77.4% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,807,000 after purchasing an additional 6,016 shares in the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 12,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,677,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 19.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,681,671 shares of the company’s stock worth $239,267,000 after acquiring an additional 273,813 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC increased its position in Kimberly-Clark by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 347,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,409,000 after purchasing an additional 21,339 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,792 shares of the company’s stock valued at $366,000 after buying an additional 466 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of KMB opened at $126.12 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77. The firm has a market cap of $42.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.36, a PEG ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 0.41. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52 week low of $117.67 and a 52 week high of $149.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $132.05 and a 200-day moving average of $137.75.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.14. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.97% and a return on equity of 198.59%. The firm had revenue of $4.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.32 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. 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 63.29%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $702,417.53. This trade represents a 37.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on KMB shares. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. TD Cowen cut Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $124.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $175.00 to $161.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.71.

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.