Maverick Capital Ltd. Buys Shares of 8,466,901 Kenvue Inc. $KVUE

Key Points

• Maverick Capital Ltd. has purchased a new stake in Kenvue Inc., acquiring approximately 8.47 million shares valued at $203.04 million, making it the seventh-largest holding of the fund.
• Institutional investors collectively own around 97.64% of Kenvue stock, with several firms increasing their positions during the first quarter.
• Kenvue's latest quarterly earnings revealed a slight revenue decline compared to the previous year, reporting $3.84 billion against an expected $3.94 billion, alongside a beat on EPS estimates.

Maverick Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 8,466,901 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $203,036,000. Kenvue makes up about 3.6% of Maverick Capital Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Maverick Capital Ltd. owned about 0.44% of Kenvue at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Starboard Value LP purchased a new position in shares of Kenvue during the 4th quarter worth about $467,864,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,144,387 shares of the company's stock worth $5,494,882,000 after acquiring an additional 10,600,682 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kenvue during the 1st quarter worth about $187,123,000. Independent Franchise Partners LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 159.3% during the 1st quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 9,379,037 shares of the company's stock worth $224,909,000 after acquiring an additional 5,761,288 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 34.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 19,670,179 shares of the company's stock worth $471,691,000 after acquiring an additional 5,011,431 shares during the period. 97.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup dropped their target price 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 target price on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on shares of Kenvue from $29.00 to $26.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of Kenvue to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Kenvue from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $24.38.

Kenvue Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of KVUE stock traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $20.51. 15,322,810 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,233,639. Kenvue Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.75 and a fifty-two week high of $25.17. 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 company has a market capitalization of $39.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.83. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $21.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.41.

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

Kenvue Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 13th were paid a dividend of $0.2075 per share. This represents a $0.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. This is a boost from Kenvue's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 13th. 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.