Ballast Inc. Buys 680 Shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Ballast Inc. raised its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,207 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 680 shares during the period. Johnson & Johnson comprises approximately 1.1% of Ballast Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $3,849,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 233,962,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,800,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170,120 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake 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 worth $4,456,201,000 after purchasing an additional 3,363,235 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 26.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 23,182,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,844,580,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,582 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,899,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,133,602,000 after acquiring an additional 712,181 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 18,282,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,031,955,000 after acquiring an additional 448,666 shares during the period. 69.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNJ has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $171.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (up from $164.00) on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $161.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs lowered Johnson & Johnson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Johnson & Johnson currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE JNJ opened at $173.40 on Monday. Johnson & Johnson has a 12 month low of $140.68 and a 12 month high of $173.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $417.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.55, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.41. The business has a 50-day moving average of $159.26 and a 200-day moving average of $157.60.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The company reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $23.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.85 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 32.49% and a net margin of 25.00%. Johnson & Johnson’s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.82 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be given a $1.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 26th. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is presently 55.61%.

Johnson & Johnson Profile

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.