Shares of Kimberly-Clark Corp. KMB, -0.94% tacked on 0.6% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the consumer products company, with brands including Kleenex, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Huggies, reported third-quarter profit that fell short of expectations but revenue that beat, helped by a 9% increase in selling prices. Net income eased to $467 million, or $1.38 a share, from $469 million, or $1.39 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share fell to $1.40 from $1.62, and missed the FactSet consensus of $1.44. Sales grew 0.9% to $5.05 billion, topping the FactSet consensus of $5.01 billion, as Personal Care sales fell 1% to $2.6 billion, Consumer Tissue sales rose 2% to $1.6 billion and K-C Professional sales rose 0.5% to $800 million. For 2022, the company affirmed its sales growth guidance of 2% to 4%, but said adjusted EPS would be at the “lower end” of guidance of $5.60 to $6.00. The FactSet 2022 EPS consensus is $5.59. The stock has dropped 13.2% over the past three months through Monday, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.32% has declined 4.3%.
