Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) Lifted to “Buy” at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) from an underperform rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $160.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $115.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI upgraded Kimberly-Clark from an in-line rating to an outperform rating and increased their price target for the stock from $133.00 to $150.00 in a report on Thursday, March 28th. UBS Group increased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays increased their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $132.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Kimberly-Clark from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $141.31.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of KMB opened at $139.49 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.81. Kimberly-Clark has a one year low of $116.32 and a one year high of $139.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.64, a PEG ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 0.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $133.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $126.30.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $5.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.08 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 250.28% and a net margin of 9.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.67 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.50%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 89.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kimberly-Clark

In other news, insider Katy Chen sold 454 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.24, for a total value of $61,398.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 520 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,324.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Katy Chen sold 454 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.24, for a total value of $61,398.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 520 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,324.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Doug Cunningham sold 1,040 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.86, for a total value of $142,334.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $524,584.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 24,395 shares of company stock worth $3,332,776. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kimberly-Clark

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of KMB. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC acquired a new position in Kimberly-Clark during the third quarter worth $2,969,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 511.4% during the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 3,699 shares of the company’s stock worth $447,000 after purchasing an additional 3,094 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 41.2% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 617,660 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,103,000 after purchasing an additional 180,317 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 5.1% during the third quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 288,949 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,919,000 after purchasing an additional 14,007 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 5.4% during the third quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 56,508 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,829,000 after purchasing an additional 2,876 shares during the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.