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

Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 35,720,000 shares, a decline of 8.6% from the December 15th total of 39,060,000 shares. Currently, 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 Investors Weigh In On Kenvue

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 40.4% during the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 317,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,772,000 after purchasing an additional 91,398 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its position in Kenvue by 19.3% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 64,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,172,000 after acquiring an additional 10,425 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank increased its stake in Kenvue by 6.2% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 386,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,031,000 after acquiring an additional 22,605 shares during the last quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its position in Kenvue by 13.0% in the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 161,275 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,932,000 after purchasing an additional 18,498 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Kenvue in the 2nd quarter valued at $746,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.64% of the company’s stock.

Kenvue Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KVUE opened at $21.11 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.37, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.46. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.71. Kenvue has a 12 month low of $17.67 and a 12 month high of $24.46.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. Kenvue had a return on equity of 21.43% and a net margin of 6.88%. The business’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. Analysts expect that Kenvue will post 1.14 EPS for the current year.

Kenvue Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 12th will be paid a $0.205 dividend. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 12th. Kenvue’s dividend payout ratio is currently 149.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on KVUE shares. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Kenvue from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Kenvue in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $27.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Kenvue from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Kenvue from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.08.

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.