Kimberly Clark Quarterly Profits Edge Past Street’s Estimate (KMB)
Thanks to its cost cutting measures, consumer goods company, Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) reported stronger than expected quarter results on Friday and expects savings to offset mild increases in the commodity prices.
The Company also provided full-year earnings outlook which could edge past Wall Street’s estimate.
The company now expects fiscal 2013 non-GAAP or adjusted earnings to be in the range of $5.50 per share to $5.65 per share while analysts’ consensus estimate is for $5.58 per share, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.
“The strength of our results this past year gives us added confidence that we will continue to execute our Global Business Plan well going forward. In 2013, we will continue to pursue targeted growth initiatives, launch product innovations and support our brands with increased strategic marketing spending. We expect to achieve healthy levels of cost savings, which should help us overcome moderate commodity cost inflation,” said Chairman and Chief Executive, Thomas J. Falk, while addressing analysts and investors in a conference call.
Although the Company benefitted from comparatively lower commodity prices lately, its margins across all product categories, felt the pinch during commodity boom which prompted the company to slash costs.
Earlier in October, Kimberly-Clark said it would discontinue selling its Huggies diapers in much of Western and Central Europe as part of its bigger plan to exit low-margin businesses in that region.
Moreover, in order to counter competition from bigger rival such as Pampers diaper maker Procter & Gamble Co, Kimberly-Clark is keeping thicker budgets for advertising and marketing campaigns.
In the fiscal fourth quarter, earnings on adjusted basis ( after excluding restructuring costs) came at $1.37 per share, up from $1.28 per share in the year earlier quarter, beating analysts’ average estimate of $1.35 per share.
Including one-time items, net profit for the quarter fell to $267 million or 68 cents per share compared to $401 million or $1.01 per share, in the same period of last year.
Net sales climbed 3% to $5.3 billion.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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