KMB Kimberly Clark Corp

By Will Feuer

Kimberly-Clark Corp. saw earnings fall in the latest quarter, despite an increase in sales, as the company faced higher costs due to inflation and a supply-chain crunch.

The company behind Huggies diapers, Cottonelle toilet paper and other items on Wednesday posted net income attributable to the company of $357 million, or $1.06 a share, compared with $539 million, or $1.58 a share, in the comparable quarter last year.

Stripping out charges related to the company's 2018 global restructuring program, Kimberly-Clark posted adjusted earnings of $1.30 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast an adjusted profit of $1.25 a share.

Sales grew to $4.97 billion from $4.84 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts were forecasting sales of $4.89 billion.

Personal-care sales grew 12%, to $2.6 billion, including the negative effect from rising input costs, Kimberly-Clark said.

Consumer-tissue sales declined by 10%, to $1.6 billion, as demand subsided year over year compared with the earlier phases of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professional sales rose 2%, to $800 million, the company said.

The overall cost of products sold rose 11%, to $3.53 billion, compared with a year earlier, the company said.

"While we expect inflation and supply-chain disruption to persist into 2022, we are committed to recovering margins to pre-pandemic levels over time, and we are optimistic about gradual improvement later in the year," Chairman and Chief Executive Mike Hsu said.

Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 26, 2022 08:00 ET (13:00 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.