Smartleaf Asset Management LLC Has $519,000 Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 33.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,977 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares during the quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $519,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,304,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,768,367,000 after buying an additional 1,083,824 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,060,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,431,443,000 after buying an additional 358,926 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,675,506 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,092,388,000 after buying an additional 206,671 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,040,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $398,459,000 after buying an additional 30,312 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,740,525 shares of the company’s stock worth $358,625,000 after buying an additional 464,615 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on KMB. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. TD Cowen downgraded Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $124.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $143.64.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE KMB opened at $143.48 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $47.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.00, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.41. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $131.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.49. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52 week low of $122.98 and a 52 week high of $149.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 201.43% and a net margin of 12.69%. On average, research analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.51%. This is a boost from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $350,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 2,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $357,420. This represents a 49.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

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.