Perennial Investment Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Perennial Investment Advisors LLC lowered its position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,382 shares of the company’s stock after selling 82 shares during the quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter worth about $4,390,037,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,339,878,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 232,792,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,666,460,000 after buying an additional 1,772,706 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 11.4% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 16,840,069 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,721,355,000 after buying an additional 1,729,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 11,930,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,698,984,000 after buying an additional 1,660,458 shares during the last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Timothy Schmid sold 403 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,098 shares in the company, valued at $2,357,552.70. This represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Robert J. Decker sold 6,999 shares of the firm’s 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Down 4.3 %

Shares of Johnson & Johnson stock opened at $153.03 on Friday. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $159.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $155.84. The company has a market capitalization of $368.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.01, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.47.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JNJ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $170.00 to $155.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com raised Johnson & Johnson from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 25th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $159.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Raymond James lowered their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Argus upgraded Johnson & Johnson to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.