The personal care company said its earnings for the quarter were $1.03 per share when it had told investors it was expecting earnings of between $1.08 and $1.11 per share.
Relentless increases in oil prices and the knock-on effect on energy and distribution costs prevented the company from translating an 11 percent rise in sales into higher profits.
"While I'm encouraged by our continued strong top-line growth in the quarter, I'm disappointed that the dramatic acceleration in inflation over the last quarter has interrupted our progress in delivering on our bottom-line commitments," said Kimberley-Clark CEO Thomas J. Falk.
High cost inflation
While sales topped $5bn the company said its margins were hit by $50m of higher than expected cost inflation.
Assuming that oil prices remain at their current levels, Kimberley-Clark now expects earnings per share for the full year to be between $4.20 and $4.30 as opposed to $4.45 and $4.60 as it had previously predicted.
Kimberley-Clark has turned to price increases in an effort to adjust to the cost environment.
"We just raised prices again in Kimberley-Clark Professional in the US and will shortly be implementing our second price increase of the year across most of our US consumer tissue and personal care categories," said Falk.
Reassurances from rivals
News of the lower than expected profits from Kimberley-Clark prompted reassurances from other big personal care firms that they will meet expectations.
Both Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive announced today that second quarter sales and earnings targets would be hit.
