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Kimberly-Clark (KMB) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Kimberly-Clark (KMB - Free Report) closed at $129.46, marking a -0.04% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.38%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.11%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.54%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of consumer products such as Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissue had gained 0.4% over the past month. This has outpaced the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 3.46% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.68% in that time.

Kimberly-Clark will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.14 billion, up 1.78% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Kimberly-Clark should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.14% lower. Kimberly-Clark currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Kimberly-Clark currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 20.18. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.82, so we one might conclude that Kimberly-Clark is trading at a discount comparatively.

Meanwhile, KMB's PEG ratio is currently 2.47. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Consumer Products - Staples industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.43 as of yesterday's close.

The Consumer Products - Staples industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 173, putting it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow KMB in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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