Cullen Capital Management LLC Decreases Position in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Cullen Capital Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,520 shares of the company’s stock after selling 82 shares during the period. Cullen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 1,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $208,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,519 shares of the company’s stock worth $330,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,221,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Silver Lake Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Silver Lake Advisory LLC now owns 11,896 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,559,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,727 shares of the company’s stock worth $226,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 10,838 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.00, for a total transaction of $1,528,158.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,720 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,520. This represents a 58.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KMB has been the subject of several research reports. TD Cowen cut shares of Kimberly-Clark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $140.00 to $124.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Kimberly-Clark from $125.00 to $118.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Kimberly-Clark from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Kimberly-Clark from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $144.85.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Down 5.1 %

Shares of NYSE:KMB opened at $137.76 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $45.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.25, a PEG ratio of 4.46 and a beta of 0.37. Kimberly-Clark Co. has a 12-month low of $123.84 and a 12-month high of $150.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $137.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $135.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.05.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50. Kimberly-Clark had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 201.43%. Sell-side analysts expect that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.26 dividend. This is a positive change from Kimberly-Clark’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.22. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.66%. Kimberly-Clark’s payout ratio is presently 66.75%.

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.