Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC Trims Holdings in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 13.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 26,172 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,080 shares during the period. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $4,066,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in JNJ. Norges Bank bought a new position in Johnson & Johnson during the fourth quarter worth $4,390,037,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Johnson & Johnson during the fourth quarter worth $1,339,878,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 24,450.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,215,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,196,596,000 after purchasing an additional 7,185,977 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 134.5% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 7,948,508 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,149,536,000 after purchasing an additional 4,559,147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% during the fourth 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 last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Benchmark upgraded Johnson & Johnson to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen cut Johnson & Johnson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Johnson & Johnson from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $157.00 to $172.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $170.88.

Johnson & Johnson Price Performance

Shares of JNJ opened at $155.37 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $373.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.11. Johnson & Johnson has a one year low of $140.68 and a one year high of $169.99. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $154.19 and its 200-day moving average is $153.67.

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

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. 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 3.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 27th. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is presently 57.84%.

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.