Merit Financial Group LLC Buys 26,387 Shares of Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE)

Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) by 237.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,481 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,387 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Kenvue were worth $899,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its position in Kenvue by 89,208.3% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 10,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 10,705 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Kenvue by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 440,364 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,560,000 after purchasing an additional 24,664 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 6.4% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 3,553,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,205,000 after buying an additional 215,188 shares during the last quarter. Lantz Financial LLC bought a new stake in Kenvue during the first quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Finally, First County Bank CT bought a new stake in Kenvue during the first quarter valued at approximately $337,000. 97.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on KVUE. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on shares of Kenvue in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $23.50 price target on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on Kenvue from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on Kenvue from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Kenvue from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI began coverage on Kenvue in a research report on Monday, March 24th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $25.00 price target for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Kenvue has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.33.

Kenvue Stock Performance

NYSE KVUE opened at $21.73 on Monday. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.67 and a twelve month high of $25.17. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $23.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.58. The firm has a market cap of $41.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.98.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. Kenvue had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 6.66%. The company had revenue of $3.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Kenvue Inc. will post 1.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kenvue Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 14th were given a dividend of $0.205 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 14th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. Kenvue’s dividend payout ratio is 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.