River Road Asset Management LLC Cuts Stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

River Road Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 4.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 109,542 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,842 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $15,586,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norden Group LLC bought a new position in Kimberly-Clark during the first quarter worth about $503,000. Choreo LLC boosted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,231 shares of the company’s stock worth $547,000 after buying an additional 355 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Kimberly-Clark during the 1st quarter valued at $130,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 9.8% during the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 35,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,651,000 after acquiring an additional 3,199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the first quarter worth $291,000. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $138.00 to $134.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.93.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

KMB stock opened at $133.74 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $141.79 and a 200 day moving average of $139.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $44.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.35, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.40. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1 year low of $117.67 and a 1 year high of $149.30.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $4.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.06 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 198.59% and a net margin of 12.97%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.74 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.26 EPS for the current year.

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.