Sandy Cove Advisors LLC Increases Position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Sandy Cove Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 8.5% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,070 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 473 shares during the period. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $887,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Pathway Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $852,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 297,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,685,000 after buying an additional 15,490 shares in the last quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 4.5% in the first quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,523,000 after buying an additional 414 shares in the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. boosted its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 19,587 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,070,000 after buying an additional 2,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System grew its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 10,620,264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,664,620,000 after acquiring an additional 498,647 shares during the last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JNJ has been the topic of several recent research reports. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $160.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $161.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Daiwa America cut Johnson & Johnson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $167.00 to $169.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $160.00 to $155.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Johnson & Johnson presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.21.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of JNJ opened at $164.10 on Friday. Johnson & Johnson has a fifty-two week low of $143.13 and a fifty-two week high of $167.78. The company’s fifty day moving average is $153.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $153.27. The firm has a market cap of $394.94 billion, a PE ratio of 10.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The company reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $22.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.33 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 36.60% and a net margin of 46.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.80 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th will be given a dividend of $1.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $4.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.02%. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.92%.

Johnson & Johnson Company Profile

Johnson & Johnson, together with its subsidiaries, researches, develops, manufactures, and sells various products in the healthcare field worldwide. The company's Innovative Medicine segment offers products for various therapeutic areas, such as immunology, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis; infectious diseases comprising HIV/AIDS; neuroscience, consisting of mood disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, and schizophrenia; oncology, such as prostate cancer, hematologic malignancies, lung cancer, and bladder cancer; cardiovascular and metabolism, including thrombosis, diabetes, and macular degeneration; and pulmonary hypertension comprising pulmonary arterial hypertension through retailers, wholesalers, distributors, hospitals, and healthcare professionals for prescription use.