Analysis
Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) shares haven't had a great year. While not showing a loss, shares are only up 6.7% from the beginning of the year, lagging the S&P by 0.7%.
It's not surprising when you look at Kimberly-Clark's growth over the last few years. Earnings growth has been constrained by a weak sales environment, stiff competition and higher input costs. And it doesn't look like the environment is going to get much better in the near future.
KMB has trimmed its full-year 2017 net sales and organic sales expectations to be only slightly better than 2016, versus previous guidance of a 1-2% improvement in net sales and organic sales. It further refined its full-year 2017 EPS guidance to the low end of its target range of $6.20-6.35. At the low-end EPS guidance of $6.20, this would mean a 3.5% improvement over 2016’s full-year EPS of $5.99.
