Kimberly Clark Corp. (NYSE:KMB) early Monday posted worse than expected first quarter earnings results, as U.S. sales dragged amid relatively stronger international growth.

Written by StockNews.com

The Irving, TX-based personal hygiene products maker reported Q1:

• earnings per share (EPS) of $1.53, which was $0.02 worse than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.55,
• revenues rose 0.2% from last year to $4.48 billion, also missing analysts’ view for $4.5 billion...
• organic sales were down 3% in its North American consumer products unit, with results negatively affected by category softness, more competition, and lower promotion shipments.
  • In contrast, organic sales rose 4% in developing and emerging markets.

Looking ahead, Kimberly-Clark forecast:

• 2017 full-year EPS of $6.20 to $6.35, which is in-line with Wall Street’s expectation of $6.32.
• Full-year revenues are seen gaining 1% to 2% to about $18.38 to $18.57 billion, also roughly in-line with analysts’ $18.39 billion view.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas J. Falk said, via press release:

“We delivered earnings growth in the first quarter despite a challenging environment, particularly in North America. We also achieved $110 million of cost savings and improved our margins. In addition, we returned more than $600 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

We are confirming our bottom-line earnings growth range for 2017. The outlook for currencies has improved, while commodity inflation has picked up somewhat and category growth continues to be relatively modest. We remain optimistic about our opportunities to create long-term shareholder value through execution of our Global Business Plan.”

Kimberly Clark Corp shares fell $0.56 (-0.43%) in premarket trading Monday. Year-to-date, KMB has gained 14.71%, versus a 5.40% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

KMB currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #4 of 16 stocks in the Consumer Goods category.