The latest trading session saw Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) ending at $152.51, denoting a -0.44% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 0.04%.
The the stock of world's biggest maker of health care products has fallen by 1.42% in the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 1.44% and the S&P 500's gain of 13.42%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Johnson & Johnson in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Johnson & Johnson to post earnings of $2.65 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 6.03%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $22.77 billion, up 1.42% from the prior-year quarter.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $10.60 per share and revenue of $91.19 billion, indicating changes of +6.21% and +2.66%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Johnson & Johnson. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. 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.
The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.04% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Johnson & Johnson is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Looking at valuation, Johnson & Johnson is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 14.45. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.21.
It is also worth noting that JNJ currently has a PEG ratio of 2.32. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.21.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 40, finds itself in the top 17% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Ensure to harness Zacks.com to stay updated with all these stock-shifting metrics, among others, in the next trading sessions.
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Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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