Drystone LLC Buys Shares of 96,590 Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE)

Drystone LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 96,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062,000. Kenvue comprises about 2.1% of Drystone LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Kenvue by 2.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 137,915,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,189,985,000 after acquiring an additional 3,075,019 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Kenvue by 16.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 127,213,940 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,942,458,000 after purchasing an additional 18,283,473 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Kenvue by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 86,979,341 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,011,832,000 after purchasing an additional 7,115,374 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,677,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,029,810,000 after buying an additional 399,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harris Associates L P grew its stake in shares of Kenvue by 7.5% in the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 31,459,511 shares of the company’s stock valued at $727,658,000 after buying an additional 2,186,114 shares in the last quarter. 97.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on KVUE. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Kenvue from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $21.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Kenvue from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $24.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Kenvue from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Kenvue from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Kenvue presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.08.

Kenvue Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE KVUE opened at $21.35 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.81, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $22.05 and its 200 day moving average is $21.85. Kenvue Inc. has a 52 week low of $17.67 and a 52 week high of $24.46. 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 (NYSE:KVUE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. Kenvue had a net margin of 6.88% and a return on equity of 21.43%. The firm had revenue of $3.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Kenvue Inc. will post 1.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kenvue Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.205 per share. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 12th. Kenvue’s payout ratio is 149.09%.

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.