Short Interest in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) Grows By 9.6%

Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 45,130,000 shares, an increase of 9.6% from the September 15th total of 41,180,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 16,210,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kenvue

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KVUE. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 23.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 134,565,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,887,773,000 after buying an additional 25,238,112 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 12.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 166,789,085 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,579,294,000 after purchasing an additional 17,908,497 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Kenvue by 110.9% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,510,427 shares of the company’s stock worth $372,880,000 after purchasing an additional 10,783,258 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 16,051.1% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 9,813,597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $210,600,000 after purchasing an additional 9,752,836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Kenvue by 21.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 43,444,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $789,813,000 after purchasing an additional 7,546,362 shares during the period. 97.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Kenvue Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Kenvue stock opened at $21.73 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Kenvue has a 52-week low of $17.67 and a 52-week high of $23.55. The company has a market capitalization of $41.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a 50 day moving average of $22.24 and a 200 day moving average of $20.19.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.93 billion. Kenvue had a return on equity of 21.80% and a net margin of 7.23%. Kenvue’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Kenvue will post 1.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kenvue Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be issued a $0.205 dividend. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.77%. Kenvue’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 105.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on KVUE shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Kenvue from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Kenvue from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $24.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. Citigroup lowered their target price on Kenvue from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Kenvue from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.20.

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.