Advisor Resource Council Invests $1.27 Million in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Advisor Resource Council acquired a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 7,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,273,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 232,792,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,666,460,000 after purchasing an additional 1,772,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 57,667,920 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,321,881,000 after purchasing an additional 1,561,036 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the fourth quarter worth $4,390,037,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,356,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,522,447,000 after purchasing an additional 431,205 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on JNJ shares. 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 report on Wednesday, April 16th. Raymond James Financial cut their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Leerink Partners cut Johnson & Johnson from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $169.00 to $153.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Johnson & Johnson from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $157.00 to $172.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Benchmark raised Johnson & Johnson to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.88.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Performance

JNJ opened at $149.81 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $360.44 billion, a PE ratio of 16.66, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.42. Johnson & Johnson has a twelve month low of $140.68 and a twelve month high of $169.99. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $154.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $153.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last posted 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 analyst estimates of $21.65 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 24.42% and a return on equity of 33.46%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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 was paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $1.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 3.47%. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is presently 57.84%.

About Johnson & Johnson

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.