| Yesterday | ||||
U.S. President Donald… U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is weighing invoking special powers through a law called the Defense Production Act to quickly expand domestic output of protective masks and clothing to fight the spread of coronavirus in the U.S., Reuters' Ted Hesson and Alexandra Alper reports, citing U.S. officials. The use of the law would mark an escalation of the White House's response to the outbreak, the authors note. Publicly traded companies that manufacture protective masks include Honeywell (HON), 3M (MMM), Kimberly-Clark (KMB) and Alpha Pro Tech (APT). Reference Link | ||||
| Tuesday | ||||
Evercore ISI analyst… Evercore ISI analyst Robert Ottenstein initiated coverage of Reynolds Consumer Products (REYN) with an Outperform rating and $35 price target. The stock is a "contender for the blue-chip, bond-proxy status" that Staples shares such as Kimberly-Clark (KMB) and Clorox (CLX) have given Reynolds' leading position in mature categories with sticky demand and high barriers to entry, Ottenstein tells investors. | ||||
| Over a week ago | ||||
Texas Instruments (TXN)… Texas Instruments (TXN) announced that Michael Hsu, chairman and CEO of Kimberly-Clark (KMB), has been elected to TI's board of directors, effective April 1. Prior to joining Kimberly-Clark, Hsu was executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Kraft Foods and held leadership roles at H.J. Heinz. He launched his career in the consumer products industry as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he rose to partner in the firm's consumer practice. | ||||
| Over a month ago | ||||
Kimberly-Clark CFO Maria… Kimberly-Clark CFO Maria Henry said on the company's Q4 earnings call that the company has announced seven of the approximately 10 facilities that it expects to close or sell and taken action on six of those. "In 2020, we will start up approximately 20 new assets globally, which is roughly twice the level of activity that we would have in a typical year," stated Henry. The company is "about 70% to 75% of the way through" pretax charges and workforce reductions, while cash payments related to restructuring are about 65% complete, Henry added. So far, the company has generated $300M of savings compared to its total program target of $500M-$550M by the end of 2021, the CFO said. | ||||
Kimberly-Clark CFO Maria… Kimberly-Clark CFO Maria Henry said on the company's Q4 earnings call that that for 2020 the company expects commodities will be "somewhat favorable, mostly offset by currency headwinds, particularly in Latin America." Spending will remain elevated in 2020 because of restructuring, Henry added. The company returned $2.2B to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases in 2019 and expects to return "a similar level of cash to shareholders in 2020," Henry added on the call, which is ongoing. | |
Notable gainers among… Notable gainers among liquid option names this morning include Citrix (CTXS) $126.71 +7.60, PG&E (PCG) $13.11 +0.56, Kimberly Clark (KMB) $148.66 +4.11, Kinder Morgan (KMI) $21.43 +0.48, and General Electric (GE) $11.63 +0.26. | |
Chairman and CEO Mike Hsu… Chairman and CEO Mike Hsu said, "Our fourth quarter results capped off a year of excellent progress at Kimberly-Clark. For the full year of 2019, we delivered 4 percent growth in organic sales and in adjusted earnings per share, both ahead of our original outlook for the year. We also achieved strong margin improvements, generated $425 million of cost savings and returned $2.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. At the same time, we launched innovations, pursued our growth priorities and increased our investments behind our brands and in capabilities to position us for longer-term success. Overall, I'm encouraged by our progress in the first year of executing K-C Strategy 2022." Hsu continued, "Looking ahead, our plan for 2020 is to deliver top- and bottom-line growth consistent with our medium-term financial objectives while continuing to increase our growth investments and allocate capital in shareholder-friendly ways. We remain very optimistic about our opportunities to deliver balanced and sustainable growth and create long-term shareholder value." | |
Including significant… Including significant spending related to the 2018 Global Restructuring Program. Sees FY20: Share repurchases of $700M-$900M, subject to market conditions; Adjusted effective tax rate of 23%-25%; Interest expense expected to increase somewhat year-on-year. | |
The first dividend will… The first dividend will be payable on April 2 to stockholders of record on March 6. |