Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) Short Interest Down 8.6% in December

Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 35,720,000 shares, a drop of 8.6% from the December 15th total of 39,060,000 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 13,550,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Trading of Kenvue

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Grove Bank & Trust boosted its position in shares of Kenvue by 438.4% in the 4th quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 1,163 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 947 shares during the period. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in Kenvue in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kenvue in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 106.6% in the fourth quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 1,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 777 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 300.8% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,441 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on KVUE. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Kenvue in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $27.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Kenvue from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler raised shares of Kenvue from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Kenvue from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Kenvue from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.08.

Kenvue Stock Performance

Shares of KVUE stock opened at $21.11 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $40.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.37, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $22.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Kenvue has a 12 month low of $17.67 and a 12 month high of $24.46.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. Kenvue had a return on equity of 21.43% and a net margin of 6.88%. The business had revenue of $3.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Kenvue will post 1.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kenvue Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.205 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 12th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.89%. Kenvue’s payout ratio is currently 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.