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what it is
Kimberly-Clark sells the stuff you buy when life gets messy: diapers, tissues, toilet paper, and incontinence products.
how it gets paid
Last year Kimberly-Clark made $16.4B in revenue. Family Care was the main engine at $5.7B, or 35% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 303.1% last year. Gross margin at 35.9% mattered most because this stock works only if Kimberly-Clark keeps turning flat sales into fatter profits.
what just happened
Kimberly-Clark printed Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.86, beating the $1.73 consensus even as revenue came in at $4.1B.
At a glance
A balance sheet — strong enough to weather a downturn
85/100 earnings predictability — you can trust these numbers
14.6x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
4.7% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
35.0% return on capital — every dollar works hard here
xvary composite: 68/100 — average
What they do
Kimberly-Clark sells the stuff you buy when life gets messy: diapers, tissues, toilet paper, and incontinence products.
When your kid needs diapers at 2 a.m., you do not run a spreadsheet. You buy Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, or Depend because the habit is already there. Return on capital (profit from money invested in the business → 35.0% → these everyday brands still throw off unusually strong cash for a company selling paper and hygiene products).
How they make money
$16.4B
annual revenue · their business grew +303.1% last year
Family Care
$5.7B
Baby & Child Care
$4.6B
Adult Care
$2.5B
Professional
$2.1B
Feminine Care
$1.5B
The products that matter
branded household and personal care products
Consumer essentials
$16.4B revenue
this page does not break out segment revenue, so the cleanest read is the whole business: $16.4B in sales and a 14.8% net margin built on repeat-purchase categories like huggies and kleenex.
the whole story
productivity and restructuring program
Powering Care
margin support
management is using the program to simplify the portfolio and protect profits. that matters because EPS still reached $7.53 even after revenue fell 18.0%.
execution watch
Key numbers
35.0%
return on capital
That means the business earns 35 cents for every dollar it puts to work, which is unusually strong for household paper goods.
22.0%
operating margin
Operating margin means profit after running the business but before interest and taxes; 22.0% says this company is better at extracting profit than its sleepy image suggests.
4.7%
dividend yield
You are being paid 4.7% a year in cash while you wait, which matters more when revenue growth is scarce.
14.6x
trailing p/e
Price-to-earnings means how much you pay for each dollar of profit; 14.6x is cheap versus growth stocks because Kimberly-Clark is selling consistency, not excitement.
Financial health
A
strength
- balance sheet grade A — very strong financial position
- risk rank 1 — safer than 95% of stocks
- price stability 95 / 100
- long-term debt $6.5B (15% of capital)
- net profit margin 15.4% — keeps 15 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 81% — $0.81 profit for every $1 investors have put in
A with balance sheet grade and risk rank standing out. your money faces less risk here than at most public companies.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in KMB 3 years ago → it's now worth $9,700.
The index would have given you $14,540.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
beat estimates
Kimberly-Clark printed Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.86, beating the $1.73 consensus even as revenue came in at $4.1B.
Gross margin was 35.9%, and management credited productivity and supply-chain optimization for helping offset tariff pressure. Latest-quarter revenue slipped 1% vs. prior year, so profit execution did the heavy lifting.
$4.1B
revenue
$1.50
eps
35.9%
gross margin
the number that mattered
Gross margin at 35.9% mattered most because this stock works only if Kimberly-Clark keeps turning flat sales into fatter profits.
-
kimberly-clark registered mixed results in 2025.
-
the top line tumbled 18% vs. prior year, owing, in large part to its divestiture of the personal protective equipment division and exit from the u.s. private-label diaper business.nevertheless, ongoing cost controls and productivity improvements boosted margins over the past few quarters.
-
supply-chain optimization also helped counter tariff headwinds.
-
in all, earnings per share advanced 3% last year.
-
the company has been transforming its business.recent divestitures, combined with kimberly’s ‘‘powering care’’ program should drive durable top- and bottom-line growth moving forward. the tissue maker will probably invest heavily in product innovation and marketing efforts to widen its footprint. cost-containment measures, and moves to maximize efficiencies across its business, ought to aid profits, as well.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the top risk is input-cost inflation outrunning Kimberly-Clark's pricing power.
med
pulp, fiber, and packaging inflation
this business sells low-ticket essentials. if input costs rise faster than shelf prices, the squeeze shows up fast.
a 2–5 point margin hit would matter a lot when net margin is 14.8%.
med
revenue shrink that lasts longer than expected
the 18.0% sales drop was tied in part to divestitures and exits. if the business keeps shrinking after the reset, the market will stop giving management the benefit of the doubt.
the whole thesis depends on $16.4B revenue stabilizing before cost cuts run out.
med
private-label and retailer pressure
household staples look defensive until consumers trade down. in categories like tissues and diapers, shelf space and price gaps matter.
if volumes weaken, KMB has less room to offset it because growth is already thin.
low
tariffs and supply-chain friction
management already called out tariff pressure. the fact that optimization helped offset it also tells you the pressure is real.
small logistics misses can chip away at a business built on steady, not spectacular, margins.
combined, these risks matter because KMB only has $16.4B of revenue and a 14.8% net margin to absorb them. a few points of margin pressure can erase a lot of the EPS stability investors like here.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
trend
revenue stabilization
an 18.0% drop is the whole reason this stock feels cheap. if that decline starts flattening, the story gets cleaner fast.
metric
fy2026 EPS estimate
the current number is $7.65. if that starts moving down instead of up, the margin-resilience story is weakening.
risk
input costs versus pricing
watch whether raw material and tariff pressure stay manageable. with a 14.8% net margin, you do not need a disaster for earnings to feel it.
calendar
next earnings print
you want two things at once: evidence that the portfolio reset is done and proof that Powering Care is still supporting EPS.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
below average
momentum score 4 — in human-speak, analysts expect near-term performance to lag the average stock.
risk profile
safest 5%
stability score 1 — this sits in the low-risk bucket, which is exactly why income investors keep looking at it.
chart momentum
bottom 5%
technical score 5 — the chart is weak even if the business is steady. welcome to defensive-stock math.
earnings predictability
85 / 100
earnings have been highly consistent. you are not buying fireworks here; you are buying reliability.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net selling for 3 consecutive quarters — 574 buyers vs. 793 sellers in 4q2025. total institutional holdings: 0.3B shares. net selling for 3 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$93
$165
$110
current price
$129
target midpoint · +18% from current · 3-5yr high: $205 (+85% · 20% ann'l return)
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