Kimberly-Clark Co. $KMB Stock Holdings Increased by AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc

AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc lifted its stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 34.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 319,445 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 81,182 shares during the quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $41,180,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 176.1% in the first quarter. Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 196 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Elequin Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the first quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, AlphaCore Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the first quarter worth approximately $37,000. 76.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $127.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $118.00 to $113.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $131.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.00.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of KMB opened at $120.17 on Wednesday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a twelve month low of $118.18 and a twelve month high of $150.45. The firm has a market cap of $39.87 billion, a PE ratio of 15.92, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $127.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $131.76.

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

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a $1.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.42%.

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.