Financial Counselors Inc. Sells 1,113 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Financial Counselors Inc. decreased its stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 33,136 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,113 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $4,715,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 3.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,060,744 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,431,443,000 after purchasing an additional 358,926 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,712,258 shares of the company’s stock valued at $385,900,000 after buying an additional 20,953 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 22.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,934,655 shares of the company’s stock valued at $267,383,000 after buying an additional 354,501 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 48.4% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,545,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $213,539,000 after buying an additional 503,839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in Kimberly-Clark by 32.1% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,360,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,040,000 after acquiring an additional 330,327 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on KMB. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $153.00 to $151.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays raised their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Kimberly-Clark presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.93.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of KMB stock opened at $139.20 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $138.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $139.21. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1 year low of $117.67 and a 1 year high of $149.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77. The stock has a market cap of $46.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.40.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $4.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 198.59% and a net margin of 12.97%. Kimberly-Clark’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.51%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is 63.29%.

Insider Activity at Kimberly-Clark

In related news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $702,417.53. The trade was a 37.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.