Starboard takes stake in consumer products maker Kenvue, sources say

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

(Reuters) -Hedge fund Starboard Value has taken a stake in Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE), the consumer products company that makes Band-Aid, Listerine, and Tylenol, and which went public last year, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Reuters was not able to immediately learn the size of the stake.

Kenvue, previously a part of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), has seen its stock price fall 18% since the company was listed publicly in May, 2023. It closed trading at $21.72 per share on Friday, giving the company a market value of $41 billion.

Starboard may want the company to review how it positions its brands and how they are priced in order to boost its performance, one of the sources said.

The sources were not authorised to discuss the hedge fund’s positions publicly and declined to be identified. A Kenvue representative was not immediately available for comment.

The news, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes two days before the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit where Starboard chief investment officer, Jeffrey Smith, is scheduled to present investment ideas.

At the conference, Starboard is expected to discuss its new roughly $1 billion investment in pharmaceutical company Pfizer (NYSE:PFE). The hedge fund has signaled that it wants the pharmaceutical giant to improve its financial performance.

Smith met last week with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and the company’s lead independent director. Pfizer delivered the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine but its stock price has lost nearly half of its value since 2021 when demand for the vaccine was high.