Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Get Rating) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $198.00 to $205.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, The Fly reports. Citigroup’s price target indicates a potential upside of 16.65% from the stock’s price.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on JNJ. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Johnson & Johnson from $178.00 to $176.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $194.00 to $190.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 19th. Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $192.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating for company in a research note on Wednesday, October 19th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Johnson & Johnson from $185.00 to $178.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold r ating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Johnson & Johnson presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.42.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Performance

JNJ stock opened at $175.74 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $459.47 billion, a PE ratio of 24.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.57. Johnson & Johnson has a 12-month low of $155.72 and a 12-month high of $186.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $171.46 and its 200 day simple The moving average is $171.26.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 18th. The company reported $2.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.49 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $23.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.44 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 35.37% and a net margin of 19.95%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.60 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Johnson & Johnson will post 10.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Johnson & Johnson announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, September 14th that authorizes the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 1.2% of its market purchase stock open Repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Johnson & Johnson news, EVP Ashley Mcevoy sold 73,323 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.47, for a total value of $12,865,986.81. Following the completion, of the sale The executive vice president now owns 41,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,336,927.11. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other McJohnson & Johnson Ashley news, EVPoy 73,323 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.47, for a total value of $12,865,986.81. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 41,813 shares in the company , valued at approximately $7,336,927.11. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Jennifer L. Taubert sold 76, 923 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.78, for a total value of $13,598,447.94. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 126,456 shares of the shares stock, valued at approximately $22,354,891.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 285,969 shares of company stock worth $49,657,009. Corporate insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in JNJ. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Johnson & Johnson by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 245,340,875 shares of the company’s stock purchaser worth $40,8af an additional 2,815,655 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Johnson & Johnson by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 200,799,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,587,638,000 after purchasing an additional 777,837 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Johnson & Johnson by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 141,886,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,178,548,000 after purchasing an additional 803,013 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 0.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 32,772,594 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,808,286,000 after acquiring an additional 265,330 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 1.6% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 32,070,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,683,837,000 after acquiring an additional 509,818 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.59% of the company’s stock.

About Johnson & Johnson

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Johnson & Johnson, together with its subsidiaries, researches and develops, manufactures, and sells various products in the healthcare field worldwide. The company’s Consumer Health segment offers baby care products under the JOHNSON’S and AVEENO Baby INTER ISTER brands; oral care under the Lbrs skin health/beauty products under the AVEENO, CLEAN & CLEAR, DR.

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