Kimberly-Clark's Quarterly Earnings Preview: What You Need to Know
The Dallas, Texas-based company is expected to announce its fiscal Q2 2025 earnings results on Tuesday, Jul. 22. Ahead of this event, analysts expect Kimberly-Clark to report an adjusted EPS of $1.67, down 14.8% from $1.96 in the year-ago quarter. However, the company has met or surpassed Wall Street's earnings estimates in the last four quarters. In Q1 2025, KMB exceeded the consensus adjusted EPS estimate by 2.1%.
Jeff Bezos Unloads $5.4B in Amazon Shares: Should You Buy or Sell AMZN Stock Now?
Elon Musk's Tesla Makes History With 'First Time That a Car Has Delivered Itself to Its Owner'
This Defense Stock Could Be the Next Palantir. Should You Buy It Now?
Get exclusive insights with the FREE Barchart Brief newsletter. Subscribe now for quick, incisive midday market analysis you won't find anywhere else.
For fiscal 2025, analysts expect the consumer products maker to report an adjusted EPS of $7.09, down 2.9% from $7.30 in fiscal 2024. Nevertheless, adjusted EPS is projected to rebound, growing 6.1% year-over-year to $7.52 in fiscal 2026.
Shares of KMB have declined 6.7% over the past 52 weeks, lagging behind both the S&P 500 Index's ($SPX) 13.6% surge and the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund's (XLP) 5.7% return over the same period.
Despite beating Q1 2025 earnings expectations with an adjusted EPS of $1.93, Kimberly-Clark shares fell 1.5% on Apr. 22. The company reported revenue of $4.8 billion, down 6% year-over-year and below analyst estimates, with all three business segments experiencing sales declines - North America down 3.9% and International Personal Care dropping 8.9%. Investor sentiment weakened further after management cut full-year guidance, projecting flat to slightly positive EPS growth instead of the previously expected mid-single-digit increase, citing $300 million in additional costs from global trade disputes.
Analysts' consensus view on Kimberly-Clark's stock is cautious, with a "Hold" rating overall. Among 18 analysts covering the stock, four recommend "Strong Buy," one suggests "Moderate Buy," 11 advise "Hold," and two "Strong Sells." As of writing, KMB is trading below the average analyst price target of $142.24.
On the date of publication, Sohini Mondal did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Scale AI's bigger rival Surge AI seeks up to $1 billion capital raise, sources say
By Milana Vinn and Krystal Hu (Reuters) -Surge AI, a data-labeling firm that competes with Scale AI, has hired advisors to raise as much as $1 billion in the first capital raising in the firm's history, sources told Reuters, as it seeks to capitalize on growing user demand amid Scale AI's recent customer exodus. The company, founded by former Google and Meta engineer Edwin Chen, is targeting a valuation of over $15 billion, sources said, cautioning that the talks are still in early stages and the final number could be higher. The funding would be a mix of primary and secondary capital that provides liquidity for the employees. Surge AI, which has been profitable and bootstrapped by Chen, has raked in over $1 billion in revenue last year, bigger than its better-known competitor Scale AI, which reported $870 million in revenue over the same period of time. In comparison, Scale AI was valued at $14 billion in a funding round last year, and was mostly recently valued at nearly $29 billion when Meta invested for a 49% stake in the company and poached its CEO Alexandr Wang to be its chief AI officer to lead its new Superintelligence Labs. Surge AI declined to comment. Like other Scale AI competitors, Surge AI is benefiting from Scale AI's customer losses following Meta's investment. This includes OpenAI and Scale's largest customer, Google, who are now planning to move away from the platform over concerns that doing business with Scale could expose their research priorities to Meta. Scale has said its business remains strong, and it is committed to protecting customer data. Surge AI's quiet yet meteoric rise has positioned it as one of the largest players in the crowded data labeling industry, defying the typical Silicon Valley playbook of raising massive rounds of venture capital to fuel growth. Founded in 2020, the San Francisco-based company has largely operated under the radar, known for its premium, high-end data labeling services used by top AI labs, including Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. As reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) has become more important in training advanced AI systems, the demand for meticulously labeled, nuanced datasets has grown. Surge AI has capitalized on this trend by appealing to a network of highly skilled contractors instead of large pools of low-wage labor. The outsized funding of Surge would be a test of investor interest in the data labeling sector. Some investors view data labeling as an ongoing necessity for AI development, predicting a continued demand from leading AI labs. Others express concern that the industry's low margins and reliance on human labor could make it vulnerable to automation, as AI technology advances and the need for manual annotation diminishes. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Senators to Vote on Trump's Tax Bill After Deal, Thune Says
(Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his chamber will soon vote on passage of President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill after securing enough support to pass the legislation. Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds Philadelphia Transit System Votes to Cut Service by 45%, Hike Fares Sprawl Is Still Not the Answer 'I believe we do' have enough votes to pass the bill, Thune said. 'But like I've said I'm of Scandinavian heritage so I've always been a realist so we will see what happens.' The Senate worked through the night on Trump's $3.3 trillion tax and spending package, with Republican leaders still negotiating Tuesday morning with key GOP holdouts. Thune did not specify what changes were made to the bill to convince holdouts to support the measure. 'I hear we're doing well,' Trump told reporters upon arriving in Florida Tuesday. 'I think it's going to be the greatest bill ever passed.' Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, a moderate concerned about Medicaid and green energy cuts, appeared to be the central focus of SEnate leaders' attention early Tuesday. Throughout the negotiations in recent days, there have been eight major Republican holdouts. Thune can afford to lose only three senators and still pass the measure. Two — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have said they are solidly against it, leaving very little room for error as the South Dakota Republican tries to get to 50 votes on the package. Senate aides huddled on the chamber floor Tuesday morning going line-by-line through last-minute revisions to the bill. Murkowski, whose efforts to protect her home state from Medicaid cuts were rejected by the Senate ruleskeeper, had meetings both on and off the Senate floor throughout the night. She would not divulge early Tuesday whether she'd support the bill. 'The sun is up, I'm going to go have a cup of coffee,' Murkowski told reporters. Murkowski had backed an effort to soften an aggressive planned phase-out of subsidies for wind and solar projects under Trump's tax-and-spending package. The amendment sponsored by Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa would also do away with a proposed new excise tax the Senate bill would slap on wind and solar projects that use components from China and other 'foreign entities of concern.' Ernst, carrying donuts through the Capitol on Tuesday morning, said she didn't think her amendment would ultimately get a vote. The change would risk displeasing fiscal conservatives who have insisted on the more stringent requirements to qualify for the tax credits. 'I don't think they're going to let us' bring up the amendment, she told reporters. 'There's a lot of stuff that went on over night, that kind of waylaid a lot of our plans.' Another moderate holdout, Susan Collins of Maine, said she still has 'reservations' about the bill after the Senate all-nighter. Democrats, angered by the Medicaid cuts in the bill, voted to defeat a Collins amendment that would have doubled the rural hospital fund in the bill to $50 billion, in exchange for a tax increase on some of the highest-earning Americans. As leaders continue to twist arms on the bill itself, they also need to ensure they have enough votes on a final 'wraparound' amendment tweaking the legislation ahead of a vote on final passage. Republican aides workshopped that amendment with the parliamentarian to determine whether changes adhere to the chamber's rules to pass the bill along party lines. Part of the calculus for Senate leaders is to strip language that could threaten the bill's odds in the House, which is planning to vote on the Senate measure later this week. The House's own version of the bill passed by a single vote. The Senate's deeper Medicaid cuts will put pressure on swing-district Republicans, while Freedom Caucus hardliners are angry that the Senate bill would contribute to larger deficits than the House-passed measure. At least one New York Republican — Representative Nick LaLota — has said he'd vote against the bill over a compromise on the state and local tax deduction that he says doesn't do enough to deliver savings to his district. LaLota had supported the House measure. Yet so far, unlike in 2017, Trump has been able to corral his party at the end, with only a few willing to buck the pressure to vote for his signature legislation. --With assistance from Chris Cioffi, Jamie Tarabay and Ken Tran. (Adds Trump remark in the fifth paragraph) America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried How to Steal a House SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too China's Homegrown Jewelry Superstar Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Treasury Yields Drop to Lowest Level in Two Months Before Powell Speaks
(Bloomberg) -- Treasury yields rose after the first of this week's three reports on US labor market conditions failed to provide justification for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut as soon as next month. Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds Philadelphia Transit System Votes to Cut Service by 45%, Hike Fares Sprawl Is Still Not the Answer Yields across maturities extended their rebound from the lowest levels in two months, led by shorter-dated tenors that are most sensitive to Fed policy shifts. The two-year note's yield exceeded 3.77% after falling below 3.70% for the first time since May 2, in anticipation that employment data to be released this week could warrant a rate cut at the next Fed meeting in late July. JOLTS job openings data for May showed an unexpected, steep increase to the highest level since November, a sign of labor-market strength. That cut short a positive market reaction to comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking at a global monetary policy event in Sintra, Portugal. Powell, facing growing political pressure to cut interest rates, declined to rule out a July cut. Momentum has been building in favor of earlier Fed rate cuts despite expectations that tariffs introduced by the US administration this year will contribute to faster inflation. Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Monday predicted Fed rate cuts in September, October and December. They previously expected one, in December. Related story: Goldman Sachs Pulls Forward Fed Rate-Cut Forecast to September Still, against the backdrop of record highs for US stocks and other favorable financial conditions, Fed policymakers may insist on evidence of a faltering job market before cutting rates. Two other reports this week — the ADP report on private-sector job creation and the US Labor Department's employment report, both for June — could still provide it. 'If the jobs data finally confirm the concerns on the labor front, it gets the Fed off the fence, to at least start to signal that July is a possibility,' said George Goncalves, head of US macro strategy at MUFG Securities Americas Inc. 'You'll get more Fed speakers leaning toward a cut in July. Investors don't want to miss that pivot. But it's all predicated on a weak NFP,' he said, referring to the employment report's nonfarm payrolls component. The Treasury market delivered its best performance since February last month as softer-than-expected inflation data and growth in jobless claims drove expectations for an earlier start to Fed rate cuts. Traders are pricing in more than 65 basis points of cuts by year-end, compared with around 50 basis points at the end of May. Speaking in Sintra, Powell — who has said that widespread expectations for tariff-induced inflation to emerge later this year mean that the Fed should be cautious — reiterated that message in part. He said Fed officials would 'expect to see over the summer some higher [inflation] readings, but we're prepared to learn that it can be higher or lower or later or sooner than we'd expected.' Policy will evolve 'meeting by meeting,' he said, 'but I wouldn't take any meeting off the table or put it directly on the table. It's going to depend on how the how the data evolve.' Powell's comments came as the US administration steps up its criticism of the Fed as being too slow to reduce borrowing costs. President Donald Trump sent a note to Powell on Monday with a list of interest rates in other countries, calling for cuts in the US, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg TV that policymakers 'seem a little frozen at the wheel' with regard to deciding on rates right now. 'Powell has been fairly balanced, but I think he just announced what is coming down the road, and that is a rate cut and possibly more than expected,' Tom di Galoma, managing director at Mischler Financial Group, said. (Adds JOLTS data and Powell comment from Sintra panel, updates yield levels.) America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried How to Steal a House SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too China's Homegrown Jewelry Superstar Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
