Ethic Inc. Purchases 48,777 Shares of Kenvue Inc. $KVUE

Key Points

• Ethic Inc. increased its ownership in Kenvue Inc. by 28.4% in Q1, holding a total of 220,569 shares valued at $5.27 million.
• Analysts have been adjusting their price targets for Kenvue, with most recent cuts suggesting a fair range between $22.00 and $26.00, while the consensus rating remains a "Hold".
• Kenvue declared a quarterly dividend increasing to $0.2075 per share, reflecting a dividend yield of 3.9% and a payout ratio of 112.16%.

Ethic Inc. raised its stake in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE - Free Report) by 28.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 220,569 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 48,777 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in Kenvue were worth $5,267,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Kenvue by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 245,885,918 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,249,665,000 after buying an additional 8,211,748 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kenvue by 4.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,144,387 shares of the company's stock worth $5,494,882,000 after buying an additional 10,600,682 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kenvue by 2.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,606,238 shares of the company's stock worth $613,882,000 after buying an additional 633,461 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Kenvue by 7.4% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 25,346,453 shares of the company's stock worth $606,920,000 after buying an additional 1,750,490 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Kenvue by 11.6% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,912,226 shares of the company's stock worth $597,395,000 after purchasing an additional 2,597,920 shares during the period. 97.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on KVUE. Zacks Research upgraded Kenvue to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Bank of America cut their target price 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. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on shares of Kenvue from $29.00 to $26.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Kenvue from $24.50 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $24.38.

Kenvue Price Performance

NYSE KVUE traded up $0.3850 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $21.4850. 13,900,327 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,538,854. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $21.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.42. The company has a market cap of $41.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.83. Kenvue Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.75 and a 1-year high of $25.17.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $3.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.94 billion. Kenvue had a return on equity of 20.06% and a net margin of 9.37%.The company's quarterly revenue was down 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. Kenvue has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.000-1.050 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Kenvue Inc. will post 1.14 EPS for the current year.

Kenvue Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.2075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 13th. This is a positive change from Kenvue's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Kenvue's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.