Oct 20 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Starboard Value has taken

a stake in Kenvue ( 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 ( KVUE ), previously a part of Johnson & Johnson ( 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 ( KVUE )

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 ( PFE )

. The hedge fund has signaled that it wants the

pharmaceutical giant to improve its financial performance.

Smith met last week with Pfizer ( PFE ) CEO Albert Bourla and the

company's lead independent director. Pfizer ( PFE ) 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.