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

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 60,066 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 46% compared to the typical volume of 41,174 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on JNJ shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on 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 reduced their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $182.00 to $169.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America increased their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $159.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $181.00 target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $170.00 to $155.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $171.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Timothy Schmid sold 403 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.15, for a total transaction of $62,928.45. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,357,552.70. This trade represents a 2.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Robert J. Decker sold 6,999 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 21,001 shares in the company, 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. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Johnson & Johnson

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 buying an additional 1,772,706 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 134,245,811 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,755,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,154,088 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 57,667,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,321,881,000 after acquiring an additional 1,561,036 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Johnson & Johnson by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 30,813,175 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,456,201,000 after purchasing an additional 3,363,235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Johnson & Johnson during the fourth quarter worth about $4,390,037,000. Institutional investors own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson Trading Down 4.3 %

Shares of Johnson & Johnson stock opened at $153.03 on Friday. Johnson & Johnson has a 1 year low of $140.68 and a 1 year high of $169.99. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $159.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $155.91. The company has a market cap of $368.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.01, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

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.