A number of prominent hedge funds are likely applauding Monday’s news that Kimberly-Clark Corp. has agreed to acquire Kenvue for $48.7 billion, including debt. Shares of Kenvue, a Johnson & Johnson spin-off best known for its Tylenol, Listerine, and Band-Aid brands, surged about 18 percent at the market’s open and closed up 12.3 percent, at $16.14.
The deal is certainly a victory for Starboard Value, the activist hedge fund that launched a proxy fight against the company in 2024. The hedge fund asserted the stock was lagging its peers and could do better with its skin health and beauty division. It also nominated four directors to the board.
In March 2025, Starboard and Kenvue reached a cooperation agreement under which the company agreed to name three new directors, including Starboard founder Jeff Smith. At the end of the second quarter, Starboard held a little more than 7 percent of the shares after selling more than 1.1 million during that period.
Dan Loeb’s Third Point is another big winner. Kenvue was Third Point’s 20th-largest U.S.-listed long position at the end of the second quarter, according to the latest quarterly 13F filing. At the end of September, the sometime activist noted in its monthly client report that Kenvue was its second-largest equity long position.
As it turned out, Kenvue was also one of the firm’s five biggest losers in the third quarter, according to the third-quarter client letter, dated October 31. “Our performance for the quarter and year has been below our expectations due to the weak performance of several of our largest event-driven positions, including Kenvue,” it said.
Several other prominent hedge funds held sizable stakes at the end of the second quarter, the last period for which this data is publicly available.
They include Sachem Head Capital Management. In the second quarter, it established a new position exceeding 10 million shares, making Kenvue the firm’s fourth-largest U.S.-listed long position.
Kenvue was also a major holding for Renaissance Technologies at the close of the second quarter. The quant giant boosted its stake during the period by 55 percent, to more than 980,000 shares, making it the firm’s second-largest U.S.-listed long position.
Lee Ainslie III’s Maverick Capital stands to benefit from Kenvue’s surging stock price as well. As of June 30, the stock was the Tiger Cub’s ninth-largest U.S. long position after it boosted its stake by nearly one-quarter, to more than 10 million shares.
Maplelane Capital established a new stake of more than four million shares in the second quarter, making Kenvue its fifth-largest U.S.-listed common stock long position.
