Shares of Kimberly-Clark Corp.
KMB,
rose 1% in premarket trading Monday, after the consumer products company, which brands include Huggies, Kleenex and Scott, reported fourth-quarter profit and sales that beat expectations and announced a dividend increase and a new billion stock repurchase program. Net income slipped to $539 million, or $1.58 a share, from $547 million, or $1.59 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to $1.69, above the FactSet consensus of $1.62. Sales grew 6% to $4.84 billion, topping the FactSet consensus of $4.73 billion, as personal care sales rose 5% to 42.3 billion, consumer tissue sales increased 14% to $1.7 billion and K-C Professional sales fell 9% to about $700 million. For 2021, the company expects adjusted EPS of $7.75 to $8.00, surrounding the FactSet consensus of $7.79, and sales growth of 4% to 6%, while the FactSet consensus of $19.59 billion implies 2.4% growth. Separately, the company said it has approved a 6.5% increase in the quarterly dividend, and set a new $5 billion stock buyback program. The stock has slipped 3.4% over the past three months through Friday, while the SPDR Consumer Staples Select Sector ETF
XLP,
has lost 0.5% and the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 10.9%.