On Feb. 18, 2026, investors weighed Kenvue’s earnings momentum against looming merger costs and related risks.
Today’s Change
(2.55%) $0.47
Current Price
$18.88
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$35B
Day’s Range
$18.39 – $18.96
52wk Range
$14.02 – $25.17
Volume
49M
Avg Vol
45M
Gross Margin
58.21%
Dividend Yield
4.49%
Kenvue (KVUE +2.55%), maker of consumer health products including Tylenol, Neutrogena, and Listerine, closed Wednesday at $18.88, up 2.55%. The stock moved higher after Q4 results beat expectations and analysts raised price targets, while investors are watching progress on the pending Kimberly-Clark (KMB +2.21%) acquisition and related restructuring plans.
Trading volume reached 46.9 million shares, coming in roughly 3.9% above its three-month average of 45.2 million shares. Kenvue IPO’d in 2023 and has fallen 30% since going public.
How the markets moved today
The S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.56%) rose 0.56% to 6,881, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +0.78%) gained 0.78% to finish at 22,754. Among personal care products, industry peers Estée Lauder Companies (EL 0.36%) closed at $111.61 (-0.47%) and Coty (COTY +1.95%) ended at $2.61 (+1.95%), showing mixed moves against Kenvue’s advance.
What this means for investors
Kenvue reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $0.27 compared to estimates of $0.22 on revenue of $3.78 billion that increased 3.2% year over year. Several analysts boosted Kenvue stock price targets into the $18-$20 per share range on the heels of the report.
Kenvue entered into a definitive merger agreement in November with Kimberly-Clark for a roughly $48.7 billion cash-and-stock acquisition. Kenvue announced a worldwide restructuring related to the merger, which includes reducing its workforce by 3.5% and incurring approximately $250 million in pre-tax charges for 2026. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026.