We’re buying 100 shares of Kimberly-Clark at roughly $98 each. Following Friday’s trade, Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust will own 465 shares of KMB, increasing its weighting in the portfolio to 1.15% from 0.9%. We’re buying a small amount of Kimberly-Clark shares, as Jim indicated during Friday’s Morning Meeting . The stock has been on a tough road since our initiation at the beginning of the month, punctuated by a profit warning at a conference last week. The tissue paper and personal care product company cautioned that third-quarter sales and earnings per share (EPS) were trending below analyst forecasts. Some of these issues are timing-related. Management poorly executed on a product innovation and was forced to delay the launch due to production issues. Distributors also destocked inventory in the firm’s professional channel. There were also some lingering issues, specifically in China, where Huggies diaper sales remain depressed by false claims about the quality of its products. Higher freight and logistics costs, as well as retaliatory tariffs with China, are impacting the bottom line. The silver lining is that the upcoming acquisition of Kenvue , with brands like Tylenol and Band-Aid, looks promising. Management said synergy planning is running ahead of expectations, and executives expressed confidence in the integration. The potential upside and boost to growth from the Kenvue deal is why we’re willing to look past some of this recent softness and pick up more shares. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long KMB. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
We’re buying more of this defensive stock ahead of an upcoming long-term catalyst