Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Insider Sells $866,420.10 in Stock

Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) insider Jeffrey P. Melucci sold 6,390 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.59, for a total transaction of $866,420.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 33,649 shares in the company, valued at $4,562,467.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

KMB traded up $0.69 on Monday, hitting $135.93. 2,147,859 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,230,626. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.05, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.81. The business’s fifty day moving average is $125.86 and its 200 day moving average is $122.92. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $116.32 and a fifty-two week high of $147.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.40.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.40. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 250.28%. The company had revenue of $5.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.08 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.67 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on KMB. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $111.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Kimberly-Clark from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $133.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.85.

Institutional Trading of Kimberly-Clark

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 204.0% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 20,575 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,500,000 after purchasing an additional 13,806 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 11.2% during the third quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 2,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $252,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the period. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,253,000. Rockline Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kimberly-Clark during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,661,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 28.3% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,671,948 shares of the company’s stock valued at $202,740,000 after buying an additional 368,505 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% 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.