Kimberly-Clark Earnings Rise

Wednesday, July 26th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DALLAS (AP) â€” With help from new products and global expansion of its core businesses, Kimberly-Clark Corp. boosted net income 11 percent in the second quarter to $434.3 million, beating expectations.

For the three months ended June 30, Kimberly-Clark earned 79 cents per share, compared with $391.1 million or 73 cents per share in the year-ago period.

Excluding one-time charges for business improvements and other programs, the Dallas-based maker of paper goods and personal-care products on Tuesday reported earnings of 81 cents per share, a penny more than anticipated by analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial.

Sales rose to $3.46 billion, up from $3.15 billion.

The company said sales of all its major product categories grew significantly enough to overcome higher raw material costs.

Kimberly-Clark makes Kleenex, Kotex, Huggies, Pull-Ups and other brands of tissue and personal-care and health-care products.

For the first six months of 2000, Kimberly-Clark earned $904.5 million on revenue of $6.85 billion. In the year-ago period, the company earned $765 million on revenue of $6.27 billion.

The results were released at the close of regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where shares of Kimberly-Clark rose 12.5 cents to $57.063.

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On the Net:

http://www.kimberly-clark.com