Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) closed at $134.96 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.19% move from the prior day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 5.18%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 6.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 4.7%.
Heading into today, shares of the world's biggest maker of health care products had lost 8.41% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 18.36% and the S&P 500's loss of 24.68% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from JNJ as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be April 14, 2020. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.18, up 3.81% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $20.48 billion, up 2.27% from the year-ago period.
JNJ's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $9.03 per share and revenue of $85.90 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.03% and +4.68%, respectively.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for JNJ. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. JNJ is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, JNJ currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.13. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.78.
It is also worth noting that JNJ currently has a PEG ratio of 2.28. 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 1.79 at yesterday's closing price.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 78, putting it in the top 31% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): Free Stock Analysis Report
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