First Merchants Corp Sells 469 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

First Merchants Corp lowered its position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 11.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,589 shares of the company’s stock after selling 469 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 808.0% in the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on KMB. Barclays lowered their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $144.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. 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 Friday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.64.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

NYSE KMB opened at $132.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $129.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $136.57. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 1 year low of $117.93 and a 1 year high of $149.30. The company has a market cap of $44.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.59, a PEG ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.41.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. This is a positive change from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.64%.

Insider Transactions at Kimberly-Clark

In other news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total value of $417,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 5,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $702,417.53. The trade was a 37.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

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.