Kenvue Inc. $KVUE Shares Sold by Rafferty Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Rafferty Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Kenvue Inc. by 20.6%, now holding 132,206 shares valued at $3.17 million.
• Kenvue Inc. reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the last quarter, exceeding estimates by $0.01, but suffered a 4.0% decrease in revenue year-over-year.
• The company has recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.2075, reflecting a 4.0% yield with a payout ratio of 112.16%.

Rafferty Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE - Free Report) by 20.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 132,206 shares of the company's stock after selling 34,217 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC's holdings in Kenvue were worth $3,170,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Kenvue by 4.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,144,387 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,494,882,000 after acquiring an additional 10,600,682 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Kenvue by 2.5% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,606,238 shares of the company's stock worth $613,882,000 after acquiring an additional 633,461 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Kenvue by 7.4% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 25,346,453 shares of the company's stock worth $606,920,000 after acquiring an additional 1,750,490 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Kenvue by 11.6% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,912,226 shares of the company's stock valued at $597,395,000 after buying an additional 2,597,920 shares during the period. Finally, Starboard Value LP acquired a new stake in Kenvue during the fourth quarter valued at $467,864,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.64% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on KVUE. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Kenvue from $27.00 to $25.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Kenvue from $24.50 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Kenvue from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Kenvue to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $24.38.

Kenvue Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of KVUE traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $20.72. The company had a trading volume of 10,307,391 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,119,262. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $21.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Kenvue Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.75 and a 1-year high of $25.17. The stock has a market cap of $39.76 billion, a PE ratio of 27.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.83.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.94 billion. Kenvue had a net margin of 9.37% and a return on equity of 20.06%. Kenvue's revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. Kenvue has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.000-1.050 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Kenvue Inc. will post 1.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Kenvue Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 13th were issued a $0.2075 dividend. This is a boost from Kenvue's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 13th. Kenvue's dividend payout ratio is presently 112.16%.

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.