Tear Sheet: Kimberly-Clark Corp.

. The company achieved about 1% volume growth and only 30 basis points (bps) of S&P Global Ratings-adjusted EBITDA margin contraction in 2024 despite spending heavily ($456 million) on its transformation initiative, facing continued high manufacturing and commodity costs, and unfavorable currency translation, the latter of which translated into a 620 bp adjusted operating profit headwind and was only partially offset by net price/mix. Kimberly-Clark?s integrated margin management approach (which we view as key to the transformation program) generated $745 million gross supply chain savings. Kimberly-Clark?s solid $2.5 billion free operating cash flow (FOCF) well exceeded our $2.1 billion forecast primarily due to a sizable working capital reduction and lower than anticipated capital expenditures (capex). In conjunction with healthy FOCF

...February 21, 2025 (Editor's note: S&P Global Ratings believes there is a high degree of unpredictability around policy implementation by the U.S. administration and possible responses--specifically with regard to tariffs--and the potential effect on economies, supply chains, and credit conditions around the world. As a result, our baseline forecasts carry a significant amount of uncertainty. As situations evolve, we will gauge the macro and credit materiality of potential and actual policy shifts and reassess our guidance accordingly [see our research here: spglobal.com/ratings]). Kimberly-Clark's fourth quarter and 2024 performance met our expectations. The company achieved about 1% volume growth and only 30 basis points (bps) of S&P Global Ratings-adjusted EBITDA margin contraction in 2024 despite spending heavily ($456 million) on its transformation initiative, facing continued high manufacturing and commodity costs, and unfavorable currency translation, the latter of which translated...

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