NewsPersonal Care

Kimberly-Clark reports 2024 financial results and projects growth for 2025

Fourth quarter and full-year performance reinforce the company's momentum with its Powering Care strategy

Kimberly-Clark Corporation today reported fourth quarter and full year 2024 results that illustrated the strength of its innovation-led growth model, driving volume gains, improving product mix, and generating significant efficiencies enabling reinvestment in its brands, new capabilities, and generating attractive returns to its shareholders.

“2024 was a breakthrough year for Kimberly-Clark with the launch of our transformative, multi-year Powering Care strategy and successfully rewiring our organization into three powerhouse segments with world-class functional support”, said Kimberly-Clark Chairman and CEO, Mike Hsu. “Our full-year results exceeded our new long-term growth algorithm – supported by consistent execution across the organization – and we established a strong foundation to accelerate our strategy in 2025 and beyond.”

QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

  • Delivered net sales of $4.9 billion, down 0.8 percent, with organic sales growth of 2.3 percent.
  • Gross margin was 34.0 percent. Adjusted gross margin was 35.4 percent, up 50 basis points versus the prior year with strong productivity gains partly offset by investments and manufacturing cost headwinds.
  • Operating profit for the quarter was $548 million, while adjusted operating profit was $684 million up 2.1 percent versus the prior year with higher adjusted gross margin enabling higher investments.
  • Diluted earnings per share were $1.34; adjusted earnings per share were $1.50, down 0.7 percent versus prior year driven primarily by lower equity income offset by higher adjusted operating profit.

FULL YEAR 2024 RESULTS

2024 net sales of $20.1 billion were 1.8 percent lower than the prior year due to negative impacts of approximately 3.8 percent from foreign currency translation and 1.2 percent from divestitures. Organic sales grew 3.2 percent, driven by an approximately 1.9 percent increase in price, primarily in hyperinflationary economies, a 0.8 percent increase in volume and a 0.4 percent benefit from favorable product mix.

2024 adjusted operating profit was $3.2 billion versus $3.0 billion in the prior year. This was an increase of 9.4 percent versus prior year and included an unfavorable impact of 6.2 percentage points from currency translation, primarily driven by hyperinflationary economies.

In 2024, diluted earnings per share were $7.55 compared to $5.21 last year. 2024 adjusted earnings per share were $7.30 compared to $6.57 last year, an increase of 11.1 percent, primarily reflecting the strong growth in adjusted operating profit.

NORTH AMERICA (NA)

North America net sales of $2.7 billion decreased 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter, with organic sales increasing 1.1 percent that were primarily driven by volume growth of 1.9 percent.

Fourth-quarter operating profit of $548 million decreased 10.0 percent versus the prior year reflecting strong productivity gains that were more than offset by a combination of a planned, double-digit increase in marketing, greater strategic capability spending, incremental manufacturing and distribution costs associated with temporary supply chain disruptions, and unfavorable pricing net of cost inflation due to the timing of price and cost realization.

INTERNATIONAL PERSONAL CARE (IPC)

IPC net sales of $1.4 billion decreased 1.3 percent in the quarter, while organic sales were up 5.3 percent reflecting price gains of 4.1 percent and a volume increase of 0.9 percent. Pricing in the quarter was driven primarily by hyperinflationary economies while volume growth was driven by double-digit volume growth in China.

Fourth-quarter operating profit of $155 million increased 36.0 percent driven primarily by lower impact from monetary losses from hyperinflationary economies.

Net sales of $5.7 billion for the fiscal year decreased by 3.1%, while organic sales grew by 9.2%, reflecting prices in hyperinflationary economies, volume growth driven by double-digit volume growth in China, as well as product mix gains compared to the previous year

INTERNATIONAL FAMILY CARE & PROFESSIONAL (IFP)

IFP net sales of $831 million decreased 1.2 percent in the quarter, while organic sales increased 0.7 percent with volume growing 1.0 percent offset by negative price of 0.5 percent. FY net sales of $3.3 billion decreased 5.9 percent primarily driven by a 4.4 percent impact from divestitures and business exits.

Fourth-quarter operating profit of $89 million increased 30.9 percent with gains from productivity savings, volume growth and better utilization of assets that more than offset investments in advertising and a planned increase in research, selling and general expenses.

Operating profit for the year increased 31.4 percent to $377 million driven primarily by strong productivity savings during the year.

2025 OUTLOOK

For 2025, Kimberly-Clark projects Organic Sales Growth above the average rate of 2%, with a negative impact of around 300 basis points due to currency translation and the demobilization of businesses, including the PPE sector and the exit of private label diapers in the US.

The company expects adjusted operating profit to grow at a high single-digit rate, with a negative impact of 320 basis points. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to grow at a mid-to-high single-digit rate, with a negative impact due to the same factors.

Source
Kimberly-Clark
Show More

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button