Washington Trust Bank Buys 828 Shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Washington Trust Bank boosted its stake in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 19,163 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 828 shares during the period. Washington Trust Bank’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $2,771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNJ. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 134,245,811 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,755,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,154,088 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 1.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 56,106,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,064,149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,004,763 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 7.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,316,920 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,968,440,000 after purchasing an additional 1,265,748 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,187,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,630,216,000 after buying an additional 547,714 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 16,840,069 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,721,355,000 after buying an additional 1,729,281 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Johnson & Johnson

In other Johnson & Johnson news, VP Robert J. Decker sold 6,999 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.88, for a total value of $1,160,994.12. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 21,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,483,645.88. This represents a 25.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Timothy Schmid sold 403 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.15, for a total value of $62,928.45. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,357,552.70. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of JNJ stock opened at $163.40 on Friday. Johnson & Johnson has a 52-week low of $140.68 and a 52-week high of $169.99. The stock has a market cap of $393.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.57, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $156.99 and its 200-day moving average is $156.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.05. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 34.24% and a net margin of 18.20%. The firm had revenue of $22.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $1.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $4.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.04%. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Johnson & Johnson from $170.00 to $155.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America increased their target price on Johnson & Johnson from $159.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $166.00 to $152.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 25th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $185.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Nine 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $171.33.

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.