Verus Capital Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Verus Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 19.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,893,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $762,279,000 after purchasing an additional 944,920 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 17.8% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,269,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $293,559,000 after purchasing an additional 342,790 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 22.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,934,655 shares of the company’s stock worth $267,383,000 after purchasing an additional 354,501 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 48.4% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,545,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $213,539,000 after purchasing an additional 503,839 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 32.1% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,360,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,040,000 after purchasing an additional 330,327 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Kimberly-Clark Price Performance

KMB opened at $132.19 on Thursday. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a twelve month low of $117.67 and a twelve month high of $149.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77. The firm has a market cap of $44.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.15, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $140.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $139.23.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.14. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.97% and a return on equity of 198.59%. The firm had revenue of $4.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kimberly-Clark Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.69%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 63.29%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KMB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $138.00 to $134.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $153.00 to $151.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. 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 report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Argus raised shares of Kimberly-Clark to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $149.93.

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.