Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) closed at $137.35 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.19% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.37%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.25%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.34%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's biggest maker of health care products had gained 2.45% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's gain of 1.34% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.83% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from JNJ as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.08, up 0.97% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $19.67 billion, down 1.67% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.57 per share and revenue of $81.23 billion, which would represent changes of +4.77% and -0.43%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for JNJ should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.03% lower. JNJ is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, JNJ currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.05. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 15.27.

It is also worth noting that JNJ currently has a PEG ratio of 2.11. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.14 at yesterday's closing price.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 100, which puts it in the top 40% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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