Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The stock traded as high as $174.60 and last traded at $173.88, with a volume of 1285997 shares. The stock had previously closed at $173.33.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JNJ has been the subject of several analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Leerink Partners cut shares of Johnson & Johnson from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $169.00 to $153.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $167.00 price target (up previously from $164.00) on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $161.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Johnson & Johnson has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Down 0.6%

The business has a fifty day moving average of $160.00 and a 200 day moving average of $157.90. The company has a market capitalization of $416.14 billion, a PE ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $23.74 billion for 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 for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.82 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 26th. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNJ. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 51,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,502,000 after purchasing an additional 6,332 shares during the last quarter. Hudson Value Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Hudson Value Partners LLC now owns 41,403 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,648,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 2,472 shares of the company’s stock valued at $358,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 69.1% in the fourth quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 28,241 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,084,000 after buying an additional 11,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lafayette Investments Inc. raised its position in Johnson & Johnson by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. now owns 48,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,081,000 after acquiring an additional 597 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

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.