Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) Shares Sold by Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc.

Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. reduced its position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 12.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,671 shares of the company’s stock after selling 390 shares during the quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $443,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 232,792,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,666,460,000 after buying an additional 1,772,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 57,667,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,321,881,000 after acquiring an additional 1,561,036 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 30,813,175 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,456,201,000 after acquiring an additional 3,363,235 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,390,037,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 1.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 431,205 shares during the last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on JNJ shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $157.00 to $172.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $171.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on 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

NYSE JNJ opened at $151.33 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $364.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $154.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $153.69. Johnson & Johnson has a 1-year low of $140.68 and a 1-year 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. The firm had revenue of $21.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.65 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 24.42% and a return on equity of 33.46%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were paid a $1.30 dividend. This is an increase from Johnson & Johnson’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is 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.