Private Advisor Group LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Private Advisor Group LLC decreased its holdings in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 1.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 274,937 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,794 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $45,678,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Johnson & Johnson by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 201,491,567 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,231,193,000 after buying an additional 2,688,798 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 90,144.4% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 54,386,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,607,414,000 after purchasing an additional 54,326,454 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,707,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,532,525,000 after purchasing an additional 748,917 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 42,224,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,458,962,000 after purchasing an additional 4,521,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,609,399,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $158.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 12th. Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $179.00 to $172.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $174.00 to $171.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 18th. Atlantic Securities increased their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $167.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, HSBC started coverage on Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, September 6th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $175.00 price target for the company. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $169.19.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Performance

NYSE:JNJ opened at $149.91 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $154.52 and its 200 day moving average is $160.29. Johnson & Johnson has a fifty-two week low of $144.95 and a fifty-two week high of $181.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $360.88 billion, a PE ratio of 11.13, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 17th. The company reported $2.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.14. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 37.14% and a net margin of 36.32%. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 21st will be paid a $1.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 20th. This represents a $4.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.18%. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is 35.34%.

About Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson, together with its subsidiaries, researches, develops, manufactures, and sells various products in the healthcare field worldwide. The company's Consumer Health segment provides skin health/beauty products under the AVEENO, CLEAN & CLEAR, DR. CI:LABO, NEUTROGENA, and OGX brands; baby care products under the JOHNSON'S and AVEENO Baby brands; oral care products under the LISTERINE brand; TYLENOL acetaminophen products; SUDAFED cold, flu, and allergy products; BENADRYL and ZYRTEC allergy products; MOTRIN IB ibuprofen products; NICORETTE smoking cessation products; and PEPCID acid reflux products.