Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Takes $590,000 Position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 4,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $590,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 77.4% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,807,000 after buying an additional 6,016 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 19.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,681,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $239,267,000 after buying an additional 273,813 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 728,728 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,492,000 after purchasing an additional 3,273 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 26.4% during the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 9,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,255,000 after purchasing an additional 2,002 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 464,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,615,000 after purchasing an additional 12,768 shares during the period. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KMB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays reduced their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $139.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $158.00 to $156.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.08.

Insider Transactions at Kimberly-Clark

In other news, insider Katy Chen sold 740 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.70, for a total transaction of $95,978.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 3,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $518,410.90. The trade was a 15.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the business’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 trade represents a 58.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 15,872 shares of company stock valued at $2,208,684. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KMB opened at $133.65 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.35 billion, a PE ratio of 17.70, a P/E/G ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.35. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $137.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $134.70. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a fifty-two week low of $124.10 and a fifty-two week high of $150.45.

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

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.66%.

Kimberly-Clark 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.