Retirement Planning Group LLC NY Purchases New Stake in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Retirement Planning Group LLC NY purchased a new stake in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 3,343 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $483,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new position in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Conquis Financial LLC bought a new position in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new position in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Johnson & Johnson

In other news, VP Robert J. Decker sold 6,999 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.88, for a total transaction of $1,160,994.12. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 21,001 shares in the company, valued at $3,483,645.88. This represents a 25.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Johnson & Johnson Price Performance

Johnson & Johnson stock opened at $153.12 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $155.24 and its 200 day moving average is $153.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Johnson & Johnson has a one year low of $140.68 and a one year high of $169.99. The firm has a market cap of $368.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.42.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.18. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 18.20% and a return on equity of 34.24%. The company had revenue of $21.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.65 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 27th. This is a boost from Johnson & Johnson’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.40%. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio is 57.84%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on JNJ shares. Leerink Partnrs cut Johnson & Johnson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Benchmark upgraded Johnson & Johnson to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Argus upgraded Johnson & Johnson to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Johnson & Johnson from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $157.00 to $172.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Eleven 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.88.

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.