Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) Director Buys $55,387,206.42 in Stock

Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) Director Jeffrey Smith purchased 3,177,694 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $17.43 per share, with a total value of $55,387,206.42. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 24,107,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $420,196,025.76. This trade represents a 15.18% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Kenvue Trading Down 0.8%

KVUE traded down $0.14 during trading on Monday, hitting $17.20. 45,949,797 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 24,650,086. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.06. The firm has a market cap of $32.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.93 and a beta of 0.60. Kenvue Inc. has a 1 year low of $14.02 and a 1 year high of $25.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. Kenvue had a return on equity of 20.02% and a net margin of 9.55%.The business had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Kenvue has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.000-1.050 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Kenvue Inc. will post 1.14 EPS for the current year.

Kenvue Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.2075 per share. This represents a $0.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. Kenvue’s dividend payout ratio is presently 110.67%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kenvue

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 1.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 233,246,267 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,881,844,000 after acquiring an additional 4,101,880 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Kenvue by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,001,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,021,267,000 after purchasing an additional 604,953 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Kenvue by 22.4% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 37,046,660 shares of the company’s stock worth $601,267,000 after buying an additional 6,781,640 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP lifted its stake in shares of Kenvue by 233.4% during the second quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 31,265,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $654,388,000 after buying an additional 21,886,537 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Kenvue during the second quarter valued at $537,418,000. 97.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Rothschild Redb upgraded shares of Kenvue from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Kenvue from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Redburn Partners set a $22.00 price target on Kenvue in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised Kenvue from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $22.50 to $22.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $18.00 target price on shares of Kenvue in a report on Friday, October 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.23.

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.