Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Get Rating) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 67,775 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 45% compared to the average daily volume of 46,842 call options.

Insider Activity

In other Johnson & Johnson news, insider James D. Swanson sold 1,062 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.66, for a total transaction of $164,248.92. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,215 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,425,191.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 1.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 245,340,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,078,885,000 after purchasing an additional 2,815,655 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 1.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 201,491,567 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,231,193,000 after buying an additional 2,688,798 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 0.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 141,886,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,178,548,000 after buying an additional 803,013 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 90,144.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 54,386,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,607,414,000 after buying an additional 54,326,454 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 1.6% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 48,707,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,532,525,000 after buying an additional 748,917 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Tuesday, February 28th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $161.00 price objective on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $215.00 price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. Credit Suisse Group raised their price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $168.00 to $170.00 in a report on Friday, May 5th. Atlantic Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $168.00 to $167.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $185.00 to $181.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Johnson & Johnson currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.00.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Down 0.5 %

Johnson & Johnson stock opened at $156.87 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $166.10. Johnson & Johnson has a fifty-two week low of $150.11 and a fifty-two week high of $183.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $407.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 18th. The company reported $2.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.51 by $0.17. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 36.13%. The business had revenue of $24.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.67 EPS. Johnson & Johnson’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.66 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 23rd will be paid a $1.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 22nd. This represents a $4.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.03%. This is a positive change from Johnson & Johnson’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.13. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is presently 94.56%.

About Johnson & Johnson

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Johnson & Johnson is a holding company, which engages in the research and development, manufacture and sale of products in the health care field. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Health, Pharmaceutical, and MedTech. The Consumer Health segment includes products focused on personal healthcare used in the Skin Health/Beauty, Over-the-Counter medicines, Baby Care, Oral Care, Women’s Health and Wound Care markets.