Kenvue Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:KVUE)

Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders bought 53,946 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 623% compared to the average daily volume of 7,464 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KVUE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup decreased their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $24.00 target price on shares of Kenvue in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler raised shares of Kenvue from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Kenvue from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Kenvue from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kenvue presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.00.

Institutional Trading of Kenvue

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Kenvue by 3.5% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Kenvue by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 218,543,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,665,908,000 after buying an additional 1,636,741 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Kenvue by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 137,915,493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,189,985,000 after buying an additional 3,075,019 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Kenvue by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 127,213,940 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,942,458,000 after buying an additional 18,283,473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Kenvue by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 97,661,344 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,085,070,000 after buying an additional 10,682,003 shares in the last quarter. 97.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Kenvue Stock Performance

Kenvue stock traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $22.22. The company had a trading volume of 7,648,927 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,035,021. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Kenvue has a 52 week low of $17.67 and a 52 week high of $24.46. The company has a 50 day moving average of $21.30 and a 200-day moving average of $22.12. The firm has a market cap of $42.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.90, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.45.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26. Kenvue had a net margin of 6.66% and a return on equity of 20.97%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Kenvue will post 1.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kenvue Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th will be issued a $0.205 dividend. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.69%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 12th. Kenvue’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 154.72%.

Kenvue Company Profile

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.