Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Purchases 247 Shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 11.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $323,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 19.4% during 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. Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 6.5% during the third quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 347,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,409,000 after acquiring an additional 21,339 shares in the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 51,217 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,294,000 after acquiring an additional 4,229 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 81.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 38,449 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,471,000 after purchasing an additional 17,220 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leavell Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 143.2% during the 3rd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,659 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,529,000 after purchasing an additional 6,277 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total transaction of $417,030.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 5,053 shares in the company, valued at $702,417.53. This represents a 37.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KMB has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays upped their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $153.00 to $151.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Kimberly-Clark currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.93.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Performance

Shares of Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $129.76 on Friday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 52 week low of $117.67 and a 52 week high of $149.30. The company has a market capitalization of $43.27 billion, a PE ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.40. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $133.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $138.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $4.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.97% and a return on equity of 198.59%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were issued a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.76%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is 63.29%.

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.