The Moat Index

Kenvue Inc.

KVUE · Materials · $36.4B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · Shallow moat ·

Doesn't clear the bar

50/ 100
Shallow moat

The four filters

Pricing power94

Median gross margin 56.0% over 5y, very stable.

Returns on capital51

Median ROIC 10.4%, above the 9% hurdle in 80% of years.

Balance-sheet safety30

Net debt/EBITDA 2.5x, interest coverage 6x.

Capital discipline0

Owner earnings -11.4%/yr, share count growing (dilution).

Margin of safety

Above valueOn sale
80% above value
Owner earnings (normalized)
$1.8B
Est. intrinsic value / share
$10.57
Recent price
$18.98
Discount to value
80% above value

Conservative model: 9% discount rate, 0% assumed growth (capped at 4%), maintenance capex ≈ min(capex, D&A).

6 years of fundamentals

The business, in plain English

Kenvue Inc. booked $15.1B of revenue in FY2025 in the Materials sector and kept 58.1% of it as gross profit — a high-margin business by that measure. After every other cost, 9.7% of each revenue dollar reached the bottom line.

It earned 9.7% on invested capital in FY2025, with a median of 10.4% across 5 filed years. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 51/100.

The balance sheet carried $8.5B of total debt in FY2025 against $1.6B of owner earnings — roughly 5.5 years of owner earnings to retire it all. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 30/100.

Put together: Pricing Power is the strongest of the four filters (94/100) and Capital Discipline the weakest (0/100), which is how KVUE lands at 50/100 — a Shallow moat.

This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.

FY2020–FY2025 · 6 fiscal years, normalized from KVUE’s SEC filings

RevenueSales, as filed$15.1B FY2025
$0$10B2020202220242025
Gross marginRevenue kept after cost of goods58.1% FY2025
0%25%50%2020202220242025
Return on invested capitalOperating profit on the capital employed9.7% FY2025
0%5%10%2020202220242025
Owner earningsCash an owner could take out$1.6B FY2025
$0$1B$2B2020202220242025

Gaps in a line mean that item isn’t in KVUE’s filings for that year — the series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.

Moat Score history

1 logged reading since Jul 18, 2026 · append-only, never rewritten

Moat Score over timeLast scored reading of each day, on the 0–100 scale49.5 / 100
0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatJul 18, 2026

Score history begins Jul 18, 2026 — the record builds from here and can’t be backfilled.

Tier changesSame-methodology crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars

None yet — KVUE has read Shallow moat for every logged capture since Jul 18, 2026.

Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record can’t be backfilled, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.

Track record

How Kenvue Inc.’s moat rated in each of the years we can reconstruct from its filings — scored only on what was knowable at the time — and what its price and returns did afterward. The score never saw a price; the two are joined only in hindsight, for education, not as a signal.

As-of scores 20232025, one methodology version · reconstructed from filings on file each Dec 31 — never with hindsight

As-of Moat Score (dot colored by tier)Indexed price (total-return (dividends reinvested))Rated Wide-moat that year

How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored KVUE on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.

0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatAs-of Moat Score86104Indexed price · log scale (2024 = 100)2023202420252026

Two tracks, one timeline: the score has its own 0–100 scale (top), the price its own 100-based scale (bottom) — never a shared axis. The price path is a total-return (dividends reinvested) index built from the same data the forward returns use; gaps in the score line are years with no reconstructed rating (see the table for why). The Table view carries every value.

What followed, in the years it rated Wide

In the reconstructed history shown, KVUE did not rate Wide-moat in any year, so there is no wide-moat track record to report. That absence is itself the honest answer — we don’t manufacture a comparison where the rating never earned one.

Materials context

#78 of 231 scored Materials companies, ranked by Moat Score.

Nearest peers by Moat Score

  1. #76FSI FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL INC.49.7 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
  2. #77TLF TANDY LEATHER FACTORY, INC49.6 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
  3. #79LYB LYONDELLBASELL INDUSTRIES N.V.49.4 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat
  4. #80MYE Myers Industries, Inc.49.2 out of 100, Shallow moatShallow moat

Compare KVUE with its nearest peersAll Materials companies on the Index →

Common questions about KVUE

Does Kenvue Inc. have an economic moat?
Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores Kenvue Inc. (KVUE) 49.5 out of 100 — a Shallow moat. The four filters behind that score (each 0–100): pricing power 94, returns on capital 51, balance-sheet safety 30, capital discipline 0.
Is KVUE stock trading below its intrinsic value?
Against a deliberately conservative owner-earnings model (9% discount rate, 0% assumed growth, capped at 4%), estimated intrinsic value is $10.57 per share versus a recent price of $18.98 — 80% above value. This is an educational estimate computed from primary SEC filings, not investment advice.
How has KVUE's Moat Score changed over time?
The record logs 1 reading since Jul 18, 2026; the latest reads 49.5 out of 100 (shallow moat). No tier changes on record yet. The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.
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