Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) Position Cut by Bay Rivers Group

Bay Rivers Group trimmed its stake in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 5.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,973 shares of the company’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. Bay Rivers Group’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $659,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. bought a new stake in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Conquis Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. 69.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on JNJ. Leerink Partners cut shares of Johnson & Johnson from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $169.00 to $153.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Benchmark upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $181.00 price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $164.00 to $169.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $171.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Eleven equities research 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $170.88.

Johnson & Johnson Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of JNJ opened at $153.39 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $153.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $153.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $369.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.42. Johnson & Johnson has a 1-year low of $140.68 and a 1-year high of $169.99. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $21.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.65 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 34.24% and a net margin of 18.20%. Analysts expect that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders 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 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.84%.

Johnson & Johnson 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.