HighTower Advisors LLC Purchases 3,514 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 141,612 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,514 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $20,164,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. OLD National Bancorp IN lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 14.3% in the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 12,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,715,000 after buying an additional 1,549 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,251 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,970,000 after purchasing an additional 787 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 95.5% during the second quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 13,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,902,000 after purchasing an additional 6,726 shares during the period. ForthRight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark in the second quarter valued at about $204,000. Finally, Capital CS Group LLC acquired a new position in Kimberly-Clark in the second quarter valued at about $207,000. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total transaction of $417,030.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $702,417.53. The trade was a 37.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Kimberly-Clark Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $134.69 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $44.92 billion, a PE ratio of 17.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.40. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $138.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.83. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52-week low of $117.67 and a 52-week high of $149.30.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $4.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

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

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.