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

Kimberly-Clark Co. (NYSE:KMB) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 13th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of 1.22 per share on Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.70%.

Kimberly-Clark has raised its dividend by an average of 3.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 53 years. Kimberly-Clark has a payout ratio of 64.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Kimberly-Clark to earn $7.54 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 64.7%.

Kimberly-Clark Trading Down 0.2 %

KMB traded down $0.24 during trading on Thursday, hitting $131.95. 337,465 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,099,827. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.40. Kimberly-Clark has a 12-month low of $117.67 and a 12-month high of $149.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.77, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $140.08 and a 200 day moving average of $139.18.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on KMB. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $161.00 price target on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $138.00 to $134.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Kimberly-Clark from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Kimberly-Clark in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Kimberly-Clark currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.93.

Kimberly-Clark Company Profile

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.