Waverly Advisors LLC Purchases 24,969 Shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 22.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 136,438 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 24,969 shares during the period. Waverly Advisors LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $19,732,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sulzberger Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $453,000. Oregon Pacific Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $949,000. Horan Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Horan Securities Inc. now owns 7,178 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,038,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 57.9% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 3,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,000 after purchasing an additional 1,271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KPP Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC now owns 11,492 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,662,000 after purchasing an additional 515 shares during the last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Johnson & Johnson

In related 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 transaction of $1,160,994.12. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 21,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,483,645.88. This represents a 25.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Argus raised Johnson & Johnson to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. StockNews.com raised Johnson & Johnson from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 25th. Leerink Partners lowered Johnson & Johnson from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $169.00 to $153.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $170.00 to $155.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.88.

Johnson & Johnson Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:JNJ opened at $152.44 on Tuesday. Johnson & Johnson has a 12-month low of $140.68 and a 12-month high of $169.99. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $156.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $153.80. The company has a market capitalization of $366.78 billion, a PE ratio of 22.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.42. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.18. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 34.24% and a net margin of 18.20%. The business had revenue of $21.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.65 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be given 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio is currently 57.84%.

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.