Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) Plans $1.22 Quarterly Dividend

Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 1st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a dividend of 1.22 per share on Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th.

Kimberly-Clark has raised its dividend by an average of 3.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 53 consecutive years. Kimberly-Clark has a dividend payout ratio of 63.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Kimberly-Clark to earn $7.49 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.2%.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 2.5 %

Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $138.48 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $138.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $130.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.59, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.58. Kimberly-Clark has a 1-year low of $116.32 and a 1-year high of $145.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.37.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $5.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.10 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 11.28% and a return on equity of 223.55%. Kimberly-Clark’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.65 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Kimberly-Clark

In other Kimberly-Clark news, insider Gonzalo Uribe sold 1,780 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.84, for a total value of $250,695.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,038,976.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Kimberly-Clark news, insider Gonzalo Uribe sold 1,780 shares of Kimberly-Clark stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.84, for a total transaction of $250,695.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,038,976.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Doug Cunningham sold 3,833 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.82, for a total transaction of $524,431.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 43,312 shares of company stock valued at $6,106,519. Corporate insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on KMB shares. Bank of America upgraded Kimberly-Clark from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $167.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.67.

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.