Procyon Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 14.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 62,994 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,048 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $10,300,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 232,792,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,666,460,000 after purchasing an additional 1,772,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 2.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,390,037,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 431,205 shares in the last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on JNJ. Leerink Partners downgraded Johnson & Johnson from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $169.00 to $153.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Leerink Partnrs downgraded Johnson & Johnson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $171.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Raymond James lowered their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $165.00 to $162.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $170.88.

Johnson & Johnson Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE JNJ opened at $155.02 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $153.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $153.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Johnson & Johnson has a 1-year low of $140.68 and a 1-year high of $169.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $372.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.31, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.42.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $21.65 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is a boost from Johnson & Johnson’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.35%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. 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.