CENTRAL TRUST Co Lowers Stock Position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

CENTRAL TRUST Co trimmed its holdings in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - Free Report) by 3.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 121,079 shares of the company's stock after selling 3,701 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co's holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $20,080,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,772,706 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,561,036 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% during 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 period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,390,037,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,356,572 shares of the company's stock worth $3,522,447,000 after purchasing an additional 431,205 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.55% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on JNJ shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Johnson & Johnson from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Bank of America cut 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. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $181.00 target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $170.88.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Down 1.1%

JNJ stock traded down $1.61 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $150.77. 8,323,506 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,959,915. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $154.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $153.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $362.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.42. Johnson & Johnson has a 52-week low of $140.68 and a 52-week high of $169.99.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - Get Free Report) 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. The business had revenue of $21.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.65 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 24.42% and a return on equity of 33.46%. As a group, equities 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 was paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were paid a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This is an increase from Johnson & Johnson's previous quarterly dividend of $1.24. Johnson & Johnson's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.