Kenvue Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:KVUE)

Kenvue Inc. (NYSE:KVUE) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors bought 61,496 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 564% compared to the typical daily volume of 9,267 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Kenvue by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 742,184 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,846,000 after buying an additional 21,222 shares during the last quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its holdings in Kenvue by 23.2% in the 4th quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 582,895 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,445,000 after acquiring an additional 109,700 shares during the period. Longbow Finance SA grew its position in shares of Kenvue by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Longbow Finance SA now owns 280,568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,990,000 after purchasing an additional 13,287 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Kenvue by 143.1% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 47,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,023,000 after purchasing an additional 28,216 shares during the period. Finally, CORDA Investment Management LLC. lifted its holdings in Kenvue by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. CORDA Investment Management LLC. now owns 1,253,096 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,754,000 after purchasing an additional 17,466 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Kenvue from $23.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Kenvue from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $24.00 price target on shares of Kenvue in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Kenvue from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on Kenvue in a research report on Monday, March 24th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $25.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Kenvue has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.00.

Kenvue Stock Up 0.2 %

KVUE traded up $0.05 during trading on Monday, hitting $23.75. The company had a trading volume of 5,671,111 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,783,498. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $22.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $22.45. The company has a market capitalization of $45.38 billion, a PE ratio of 44.80, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.25. 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 has a one year low of $17.67 and a one year high of $24.46.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.26. Kenvue had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 6.66%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Kenvue will post 1.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Kenvue Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th were given a $0.205 dividend. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 12th. Kenvue’s dividend payout ratio is presently 154.72%.

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.