Cooke & Bieler LP Cuts Stake in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE)

Cooke & Bieler LP reduced its stake in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,578,903 shares of the company’s stock after selling 22,012 shares during the quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP’s holdings in Kenvue were worth $33,994,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Kenvue during the third quarter valued at about $2,944,816,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Kenvue by 572.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 89,182,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,790,794,000 after purchasing an additional 75,913,107 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Kenvue by 576.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 71,686,830 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,439,472,000 after purchasing an additional 61,084,123 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Kenvue by 227.7% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 61,091,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,226,711,000 after purchasing an additional 42,449,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Kenvue by 4,057.4% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,162,614 shares of the company’s stock valued at $625,745,000 after purchasing an additional 30,413,040 shares during the last quarter. 97.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Kenvue Price Performance

NYSE KVUE remained flat at $19.58 on Friday. 9,506,274 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,499,857. Kenvue Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.82 and a twelve month high of $27.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $19.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.16.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.03. Kenvue had a net margin of 9.87% and a return on equity of 15.62%. The business had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.78 billion. The firm’s revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Kenvue Inc. will post 1.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kenvue Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 14th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.09%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 13th.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on KVUE. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Kenvue in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. William Blair began coverage on shares of Kenvue in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Kenvue in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Kenvue has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.85.

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.