Royal Bank of Canada Downgrades Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) to Sector Perform

Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $24.00 price target on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Kenvue from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Kenvue from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Kenvue from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Kenvue from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Kenvue from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Kenvue presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $22.10.

Kenvue Stock Performance

KVUE stock opened at $23.27 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $44.55 billion, a PE ratio of 29.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The business has a 50 day moving average of $21.31 and a 200-day moving average of $20.05. Kenvue has a 12-month low of $17.67 and a 12-month high of $23.55.

Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Kenvue will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Kenvue Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 14th were issued a $0.205 dividend. This is a positive change from Kenvue’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 14th. Kenvue’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 105.13%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kenvue

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Kenvue by 23.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 134,565,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,887,773,000 after buying an additional 25,238,112 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Kenvue by 12.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 166,789,085 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,579,294,000 after buying an additional 17,908,497 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Kenvue by 110.9% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,510,427 shares of the company’s stock worth $372,880,000 after buying an additional 10,783,258 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Kenvue by 16,051.1% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 9,813,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $210,600,000 after buying an additional 9,752,836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Kenvue by 21.0% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 43,444,085 shares of the company’s stock worth $789,813,000 after buying an additional 7,546,362 shares in the last quarter. 97.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.