Evercore ISI Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) Stock Price

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) had its price target reduced by Evercore ISI from $168.00 to $155.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI’s target price points to a potential upside of 17.16% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on KMB. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $138.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. TD Cowen cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.08.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

KMB stock opened at $132.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $43.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.52, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.37. Kimberly-Clark has a twelve month low of $124.10 and a twelve month high of $150.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $139.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $135.61.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.90 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.01 EPS. Analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total value of $1,528,158.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,520. This represents a 58.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Kimberly-Clark

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,142,545 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,605,079,000 after buying an additional 4,603,787 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,589,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,387,709,000 after acquiring an additional 529,223 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,473,459 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,113,444,000 after acquiring an additional 797,953 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,529,108 shares of the company’s stock worth $986,616,000 after purchasing an additional 417,118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Kimberly-Clark by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,653,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $740,868,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015,141 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% 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.