Kimberly-Clark Profit Beats in 2Q, Raises View

Kimberly-Clark Corp posted a higher-than-expected jump in quarterly profit and raised the high end of its 2012 forecast on Thursday as the maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers kept cutting costs, helping to overcome sluggish sales growth.

Second-quarter profit rose to $498 million, or $1.26 per share, from $408 million, or $1.03 per share, a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings per share, excluding costs for the company's pulp and tissue restructuring, rose to $1.30 from $1.18. Analysts, on average, expected $1.28 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 0.2 percent to $5.27 billion. The volume of goods sold increased 2 percent, and prices were up more than 2 percent.

Kimberly-Clark now expects to earn $5.00 to $5.20 per share this year on an adjusted basis, versus its prior forecast of $5.00 to $5.15 per share. Sales are still expected to be flat to up 1 percent.