Versant Capital Management Inc Boosts Stock Position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 80.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,425 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,747 shares during the quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $1,397,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of JNJ. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 232,792,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,666,460,000 after acquiring an additional 1,772,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Johnson & Johnson by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 57,667,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,321,881,000 after purchasing an additional 1,561,036 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 30,813,175 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,456,201,000 after purchasing an additional 3,363,235 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,390,037,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Johnson & Johnson by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,356,572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,522,447,000 after acquiring an additional 431,205 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JNJ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs cut shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $157.00 to $172.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Benchmark raised shares of Johnson & Johnson to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $181.00 target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.88.

Johnson & Johnson Price Performance

Shares of Johnson & Johnson stock opened at $153.44 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $154.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $153.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $369.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.07, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.42. Johnson & Johnson has a 12 month low of $140.68 and a 12 month high of $169.99.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $21.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.65 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. This is a positive change from Johnson & Johnson’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. This represents a $5.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is presently 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.