Short Interest in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) Declines By 17.4%

Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 30,250,000 shares, a decline of 17.4% from the July 15th total of 36,620,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 22,360,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kenvue

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Kenvue by 28.3% in the 2nd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 28,766 shares of the company’s stock valued at $523,000 after acquiring an additional 6,353 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of Kenvue by 13.7% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 62,687 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,140,000 after acquiring an additional 7,564 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Kenvue by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 379,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,891,000 after acquiring an additional 50,562 shares during the last quarter. Clearline Capital LP lifted its stake in shares of Kenvue by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Clearline Capital LP now owns 1,524,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,717,000 after acquiring an additional 109,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Scientech Research LLC bought a new stake in shares of Kenvue in the 2nd quarter valued at about $541,000. Institutional investors own 97.64% of the company’s stock.

Kenvue Price Performance

KVUE opened at $21.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $18.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.45. Kenvue has a 12-month low of $17.67 and a 12-month high of $24.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.38.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.04. Kenvue had a return on equity of 21.06% and a net margin of 9.63%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Kenvue will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kenvue Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 14th will be paid a $0.205 dividend. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 14th. This is a positive change from Kenvue’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Kenvue’s payout ratio is 105.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on KVUE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Kenvue from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. HSBC boosted their price objective on Kenvue from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Kenvue from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Kenvue from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $24.00 target price on shares of Kenvue in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.64.

About Kenvue

Kenvue Inc operates as a consumer health company worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Self Care, Skin Health and Beauty, and Essential Health. The Self Care segment offers cough, cold and allergy, pain care, digestive health, smoking cessation, eye care, and other products under the Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Nicorette, Zarbee's, ORSLTM, Rhinocort, Calpol, and Zyrtec brands.