Kimberly-Clark beats 4Q profit forecasts

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB) on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $617 million.

The Dallas-based company said it had profit of $1.75 per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, were $1.57 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.54 per share.

The maker of consumer products such as Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissue posted revenue of $4.58 billion in the period, which missed Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $4.6 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $2.28 billion, or $6.40 per share. Revenue was reported as $18.26 billion.

Kimberly-Clark expects full-year earnings in the range of $6.90 to $7.20 per share.

Kimberly-Clark shares have decreased 3 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 6 percent. The stock has climbed nearly 1 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on KMB at https://www.zacks.com/ap/KMB