Bridgewater Associates LP Reduces Stake in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Bridgewater Associates LP reduced its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 63.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 537,937 shares of the company’s stock after selling 932,184 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $77,796,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 232,792,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,666,460,000 after purchasing an additional 1,772,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 57,667,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,321,881,000 after purchasing an additional 1,561,036 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,390,037,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised 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 valued at $3,522,447,000 after buying an additional 431,205 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 19,126,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,766,014,000 after acquiring an additional 1,171,975 shares in the last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on JNJ. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $157.00 to $172.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Leerink Partners cut their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $182.00 to $169.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus cut 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $163.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $171.50.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Up 1.5 %

JNJ opened at $154.08 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $155.11. The company has a market capitalization of $371.31 billion, a PE ratio of 23.17, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.49. Johnson & Johnson has a 1-year low of $140.68 and a 1-year high of $169.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $22.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.44 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 34.24% and a net margin of 18.20%. Johnson & Johnson’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Johnson & Johnson

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

Johnson & Johnson Company 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.