Auto Owners Insurance Co Buys 59,238 Shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its holdings in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - Free Report) by 17.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 396,498 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 59,238 shares during the quarter. Johnson & Johnson makes up about 1.2% of Auto Owners Insurance Co's holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest holding. Auto Owners Insurance Co's holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $65,755,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Syverson Strege & Co increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 1,394 shares of the company's stock valued at $202,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. MBA Advisors LLC increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. MBA Advisors LLC now owns 5,553 shares of the company's stock valued at $921,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,928 shares of the company's stock valued at $651,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Nabity Jensen Investment Management Inc increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Nabity Jensen Investment Management Inc now owns 4,624 shares of the company's stock valued at $767,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 12,970 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,151,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on JNJ. Leerink Partners downgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $169.00 to $153.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Johnson & Johnson from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Johnson & Johnson presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Johnson & Johnson Price Performance

NYSE:JNJ traded down $1.27 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $168.29. 6,199,690 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,375,731. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Johnson & Johnson has a 1 year low of $140.68 and a 1 year high of $169.99. The company has a market cap of $404.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $156.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $155.78.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The company reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.09. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 25.00% and a return on equity of 33.07%. The business had revenue of $23.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.82 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.09%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 26th. Johnson & Johnson's dividend payout ratio is currently 55.61%.

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.