Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 2,798 Shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 3.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 84,564 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,798 shares during the quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $12,831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in JNJ. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $33,666,460,000 after acquiring an additional 1,772,706 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 2.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,561,036 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% during the 4th 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 acquired a new stake in Johnson & Johnson during the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,390,037,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in 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 buying an additional 431,205 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Performance

NYSE JNJ opened at $156.90 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $377.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $153.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $153.70. Johnson & Johnson has a 1 year low of $140.68 and a 1 year high of $169.99.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.18. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 18.20% and a return on equity of 34.24%. The company had revenue of $21.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.65 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were paid a dividend of $1.30 per share. This is an increase from Johnson & Johnson’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is currently 57.84%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. 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 report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Johnson & Johnson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Leerink Partners cut Johnson & Johnson from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $169.00 to $153.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. Raymond James dropped their target price 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. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $171.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Johnson & Johnson presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $170.88.

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.