Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) Shares Down 0.7% After Analyst Downgrade

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)’s share price traded down 0.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Raymond James lowered their price target on the stock from $165.00 to $162.00. Raymond James currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Johnson & Johnson traded as low as $152.10 and last traded at $153.27. 3,332,488 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 58% from the average session volume of 7,947,231 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.36.

JNJ has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays upped their target price on Johnson & Johnson from $159.00 to $166.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $171.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Johnson & Johnson from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $157.00 to $172.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Johnson & Johnson from $170.00 to $155.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $171.50.

Insider Activity at Johnson & Johnson

In other Johnson & Johnson news, EVP Timothy Schmid sold 403 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.15, for a total value of $62,928.45. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,357,552.70. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Robert J. Decker sold 6,999 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.88, for a total transaction of $1,160,994.12. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 21,001 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,483,645.88. The trade was a 25.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Johnson & Johnson

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 232,792,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,666,460,000 after buying an additional 1,772,706 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 57,667,920 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,321,881,000 after acquiring an additional 1,561,036 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 30,813,175 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,456,201,000 after acquiring an additional 3,363,235 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter worth about $4,390,037,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,356,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,522,447,000 after purchasing an additional 431,205 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Down 0.4 %

The company has a market capitalization of $370.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.49. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $159.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $155.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $21.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.65 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 34.24% and a net margin of 18.20%. Equities analysts expect that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be given a $1.30 dividend. This is a positive change from Johnson & Johnson’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.38%. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is 74.59%.

About Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is a holding company, which engages in the research, development, manufacture, and sale of products in the healthcare field. It operates through the Innovative Medicine and MedTech segments. The Innovative Medicine segment focuses on immunology, infectious diseases, neuroscience, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolism, and pulmonary hypertension.