Franklin Resources Inc. Has $60.04 Million Stock Holdings in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB)

Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 418,270 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 70,633 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Kimberly-Clark were worth $60,038,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,304,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,768,367,000 after purchasing an additional 1,083,824 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Kimberly-Clark by 3.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,060,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,431,443,000 after buying an additional 358,926 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 2.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,675,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,092,388,000 after buying an additional 206,671 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 0.8% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,712,258 shares of the company’s stock valued at $385,900,000 after buying an additional 20,953 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 354,501 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on KMB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group decreased their price target on 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 increased their price target on Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.93.

Kimberly-Clark Stock Up 0.0 %

Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $131.36 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $136.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $139.46. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $117.67 and a twelve month high of $149.30. The company has a market capitalization of $43.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.40.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.14. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 198.59% and a net margin of 12.97%. The business had revenue of $4.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.74 earnings per share. Kimberly-Clark’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Kimberly-Clark Co. will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.29%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kimberly-Clark news, VP Andrew Drexler sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.01, for a total transaction of $417,030.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 5,053 shares in the company, valued at $702,417.53. This represents a 37.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

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.