Wasatch Advisors LP Lowers Position in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE)

Wasatch Advisors LP reduced its stake in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) by 8.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 135,740 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,361 shares during the quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP’s holdings in Kenvue were worth $3,140,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Kenvue by 110.9% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,510,427 shares of the company’s stock valued at $372,880,000 after purchasing an additional 10,783,258 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Kenvue by 21.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 43,444,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $789,813,000 after purchasing an additional 7,546,362 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Kenvue by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 86,979,341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,011,832,000 after purchasing an additional 7,115,374 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Kenvue by 20.7% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 27,382,644 shares of the company’s stock valued at $497,816,000 after purchasing an additional 4,700,697 shares during the period. Finally, M&G PLC grew its stake in Kenvue by 538.0% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 4,341,172 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,847,000 after purchasing an additional 3,660,730 shares during the period. 97.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on KVUE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Kenvue from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Kenvue from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $24.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Kenvue from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Kenvue from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Kenvue from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.64.

Kenvue Stock Performance

Shares of KVUE opened at $24.08 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. Kenvue Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.67 and a 52-week high of $24.46.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. Kenvue had a return on equity of 21.43% and a net margin of 6.88%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Kenvue Inc. will post 1.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kenvue Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.205 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.41%. Kenvue’s payout ratio is currently 149.09%.

Kenvue Profile

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.