Manchester Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Johnson & Johnson $JNJ

Manchester Capital Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 25.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,918 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,811 shares during the quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $3,959,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in JNJ. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,369,188,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 15,040.6% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,420,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,133,512,000 after acquiring an additional 7,371,687 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 237,047,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,209,060,000 after purchasing an additional 3,085,180 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 159.6% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,159,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $635,327,000 after purchasing an additional 2,557,388 shares during the period. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the second quarter worth $401,420,000. Institutional investors own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on JNJ. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $165.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley set a $190.00 target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Johnson & Johnson from $213.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.05.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Performance

Shares of JNJ stock opened at $206.07 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Johnson & Johnson has a 1-year low of $140.68 and a 1-year high of $206.94. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $188.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $172.13. The company has a market capitalization of $496.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.38.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 30th. The company reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $24.02 billion during the quarter. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 32.73% and a net margin of 27.26%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 25th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 25th. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Johnson & Johnson news, EVP Jennifer L. Taubert sold 56,471 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.81, for a total transaction of $10,041,108.51. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 178,013 shares in the company, valued at $31,652,491.53. This represents a 24.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.