Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Has $427,000 Position in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,951 shares of the company’s stock after selling 96 shares during the period. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $427,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in JNJ. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 425,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,985,000 after acquiring an additional 52,997 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Group Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the 3rd quarter valued at about $213,000. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,215,108 shares of the company’s stock valued at $358,980,000 after acquiring an additional 111,570 shares in the last quarter. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE lifted its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE now owns 40,715 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,598,000 after purchasing an additional 527 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Welch Group LLC lifted its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 345,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,040,000 after purchasing an additional 8,701 shares during the last quarter. 69.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

JNJ has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $166.00 to $152.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Leerink Partners cut their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $182.00 to $169.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $185.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Raymond James cut their price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Johnson & Johnson currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $170.67.

Insider Activity at Johnson & Johnson

In other news, Director Mark A. Weinberger acquired 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $147.22 per share, for a total transaction of $147,220.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 1,000 shares in the company, valued at $147,220. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Robert J. Decker sold 6,999 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.88, for a total transaction of $1,160,994.12. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 21,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,483,645.88. This represents a 25.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson Trading Down 2.0 %

JNJ opened at $162.75 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The company has a market cap of $391.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.52. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $150.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $155.97. Johnson & Johnson has a fifty-two week low of $140.68 and a fifty-two week high of $168.85.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. Johnson & Johnson’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $1.24 per share. This represents a $4.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.05%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.59%.

Johnson & Johnson Company Profile

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.