Traders Buy Large Volume of Kimberly-Clark Call Options (NASDAQ:KMB)

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NASDAQ:KMB) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 10,715 call options on the company. This is an increase of 58% compared to the average volume of 6,801 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on KMB shares. BNP Paribas reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a report on Monday. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 31st. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $118.00 to $113.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $120.00 target price (down previously from $150.00) on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $129.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $126.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kimberly-Clark

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Kimberly-Clark by 14.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,435,476 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,212,942,000 after purchasing an additional 5,200,011 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,830,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,615,382,000 after purchasing an additional 997,397 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,482,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,480,344,000 after buying an additional 218,644 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Kimberly-Clark by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,254,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,065,423,000 after buying an additional 363,865 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Kimberly-Clark by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,095,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,151,309,000 after buying an additional 566,152 shares in the last quarter. 76.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.8%

Kimberly-Clark stock opened at $106.13 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $113.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $125.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.41. Kimberly-Clark has a 12 month low of $99.22 and a 12 month high of $150.45. The stock has a market cap of $35.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 0.25.

Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.37. The business had revenue of $4.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. Kimberly-Clark had a return on equity of 183.11% and a net margin of 10.89%.Kimberly-Clark’s quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Kimberly-Clark will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Kimberly-Clark Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a $1.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $5.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.7%. Kimberly-Clark’s dividend payout ratio is currently 85.28%.

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.