Kenvue CEO Thibaut Mongon on the New York Inventory Trade for its preliminary public providing, Might 4, 2023.
Supply: NYSE
Activist investor Starboard Worth has a big stake in Kenvue, which spun out of Johnson & Johnson in mid-2023, in response to folks accustomed to the matter.
The activist is in search of the corporate to enhance its share value, mentioned the folks, who requested anonymity to debate non-public data freely. CNBC couldn’t study the scale of the stake nor Starboard’s particular plans. Starboard’s Jeff Smith is predicted to debate the activist’s plans for the corporate intimately at 13D Monitor’s Energetic-Passive Investor Summit on Tuesday.
Shares surged about 5% in Monday buying and selling on the information, which was first reported by The Wall Road Journal.
Kenvue is the maker of iconic manufacturers acquainted to each buyers and the broader public, equivalent to Aveeno, Band-Assist, Listerine, Neutrogena, Tylenol and J&J’s namesake child powder and shampoo.
Starboard’s push at Kenvue comes simply two weeks after information broke that it had amassed a roughly $1 billion stake in struggling pharmaceutical firm Pfizer.
Johnson & Johnson accomplished its separation from Kenvue in August 2023, although the pharmaceutical big nonetheless holds a stake within the new firm. It marked the most important shake-up in J&J’s practically 140-year historical past.
J&J introduced the cut up in late 2021 as a bid to streamline operations and refocus on its pharmaceutical and medical machine divisions.
Shares of Kenvue are largely unchanged up to now this yr, whereas the S&P has risen about 23%. Different shopper merchandise giants are outperforming Kenvue this yr. Haleon is up greater than 20% for the yr, whereas Procter & Gamble’s inventory is up practically 17%.
Kenvue began buying and selling on the New York Inventory Trade in Might 2023, ending its first day of buying and selling with a share value of about $27. Shares of the corporate have fallen since then, closing at $21.72 on Friday. That places Kenvue’s market worth at round $41.6 billion, down from $50 billion on the day of its public market debut.