(Reuters) -Kenvue missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter sales on Monday, while it also announced its acquisition by Kimberly-Clark for about $48.7 billion.
The consumer health company’s shares rose about 20% in premarket trading following the deal.
Kenvue has endured several challenges since its spinoff from Johnson & Johnson in 2023, and was especially scrutinized following President Donald Trump’s comments linking its popular pain medicine Tylenol to autism.
Last week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr acknowledged there is no evidence proving Tylenol causes autism, but repeated his view that signs of a link between the two were “very suggestive.”
U.S. sales of Tylenol had declined 11% between September 20 and October 4, after the Trump administration called out the drug’s potential link to autism, BNP Paribas analyst Navann Ty had said in a note last month.
Its largest segment of self-care, which houses brands such as Benadryl and Tylenol, saw a 3.8% decline in sales to $1.56 billion.
Weakness in Kenvue’s core businesses, especially skin health and beauty, had intensified investor pressure and led to the ouster of Thibaut Mongon as CEO in July.
Sales at the skin health segment, which includes brands like Neutrogena and Aveeno, fell 3.2% to $1.04 billion.
Kenvue on Monday named Kirk Perry as its permanent CEO, along with two other executives who previously served at Procter & Gamble and Mondelēz International.
The company’s third-quarter net sales decreased 3.5% to $3.76 billion, missing estimates of $3.84 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
On an adjusted basis, the company reported a profit of 28 cents per share, compared with estimates of 27 cents apiece.
The Band-Aid maker also reiterated its 2025 adjusted profit outlook of between $1.00 and $1.05 per share, and expects 2025 net sales to be down by low-single-digits.
(Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)
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