Verity & Verity LLC Acquires 19,697 Shares of Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE)

Verity & Verity LLC increased its stake in shares of Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) by 112.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 37,188 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 19,697 shares during the quarter. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Kenvue were worth $794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Huntington National Bank increased its holdings in Kenvue by 26.5% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 4,161 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 871 shares during the period. ING Groep NV increased its stake in Kenvue by 23.6% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 3,576,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,727,000 after acquiring an additional 681,954 shares during the last quarter. Saturna Capital Corp increased its stake in Kenvue by 29.9% in the third quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 1,334,860 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,875,000 after acquiring an additional 307,039 shares during the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Kenvue by 122.1% during the fourth quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 45,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $969,000 after purchasing an additional 24,950 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tyler Stone Wealth Management lifted its stake in Kenvue by 134.4% during the third quarter. Tyler Stone Wealth Management now owns 49,050 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 28,125 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America boosted their price target on Kenvue from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Kenvue from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $24.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Kenvue from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Kenvue from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Kenvue currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.08.

Kenvue Stock Performance

NYSE KVUE opened at $21.11 on Friday. The company 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. Kenvue Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.67 and a twelve month high of $24.46. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.66. 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 (NYSE:KVUE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. Kenvue had a return on equity of 21.43% and a net margin of 6.88%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.31 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Kenvue Inc. will post 1.14 EPS for the current year.

Kenvue Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th will be given a $0.205 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 12th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.89%. Kenvue’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.