River Road Asset Management LLC Acquires 1,479 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Corporation $KMB

River Road Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NASDAQ:KMB) by 1.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 85,842 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,479 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $10,698,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 14.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,435,476 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,212,942,000 after purchasing an additional 5,200,011 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 1.9% during the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,482,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,480,344,000 after acquiring an additional 218,644 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 4.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,254,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,065,423,000 after acquiring an additional 363,865 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 7.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,095,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,151,309,000 after acquiring an additional 566,152 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 3.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,827,666 shares of the company’s stock worth $828,811,000 after acquiring an additional 173,915 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on KMB. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $127.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday. BNP Paribas reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $127.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $162.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Barclays set a $132.00 price objective on Kimberly-Clark in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $126.00.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.5%

Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $108.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $113.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.95, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.61, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.77. Kimberly-Clark Corporation has a 52 week low of $99.22 and a 52 week high of $150.45.

Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.37. The business had revenue of $4.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.14 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 184.87% and a net margin of 12.87%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.83 EPS. Analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Corporation will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $1.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $5.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.6%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 85.28%.

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.