Bank of Nova Scotia Reduces Position in Johnson & Johnson $JNJ

Bank of Nova Scotia decreased its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) by 36.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 761,803 shares of the company’s stock after selling 433,751 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $186,215,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JNJ. Blueline Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Cresta Advisors Ltd. acquired a new stake in Johnson & Johnson during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. DecisionPoint Financial LLC grew its position in Johnson & Johnson by 104.2% during the 4th quarter. DecisionPoint Financial LLC now owns 147 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Johnson & Johnson by 49.0% during the 4th quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 149 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Family CFO Inc acquired a new position in Johnson & Johnson in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Johnson & Johnson this week:

• Positive Sentiment: The FDA granted marketing authorization for J&J’s OTTAVA robotic surgical system, a potentially meaningful new business in soft-tissue robotics that could expand the MedTech division. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: J&J also reported encouraging late-stage data for its multiple myeloma therapies Tecvayli and Talvey, with the MonumenTAL-6 study showing large reductions in progression risk and death, strengthening the company’s oncology pipeline. PR Newswire article
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are also responding to J&J’s recent quarterly earnings beat and upbeat 2026 outlook, which has boosted sentiment around the stock and drawn interest from ETF investors. Yahoo Finance article
• Positive Sentiment: J&J raised its dividend, reinforcing its appeal as a defensive income stock and supporting demand from dividend-focused investors. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles were commentary pieces discussing J&J’s valuation, ETF exposure, and investor attention, but they do not add a new fundamental catalyst on their own. MarketBeat article
• Negative Sentiment: A Reuters report said a judge cast doubt on roughly 69,000 talc-related cancer claims, which could still keep legal uncertainty in focus despite being framed as a procedural win for J&J. Reuters article

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $265.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $270.00 price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Johnson Rice raised Johnson & Johnson from an “outperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $280.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Raymond James Financial boosted their target price on Johnson & Johnson from $258.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.30.

Johnson & Johnson Stock Performance

Shares of JNJ stock opened at $259.34 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $236.13. The company has a market cap of $624.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.24. Johnson & Johnson has a 12-month low of $164.23 and a 12-month high of $269.43.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The company reported $2.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by $0.06. Johnson & Johnson had a return on equity of 32.86% and a net margin of 21.48%.The firm had revenue of $25.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Johnson & Johnson has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.600-11.750 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Johnson & Johnson will post 11.68 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th will be paid a dividend of $1.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 25th. This represents a $5.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is 62.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Johnson & Johnson news, EVP Kathryn E. Wengel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.15, for a total transaction of $2,411,500.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 114,288 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,560,551.20. The trade was a 8.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

About Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is a multinational healthcare company headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of products across pharmaceuticals, medical devices and previously consumer health. Founded in 1886 by the Johnson family, the company has grown into a global healthcare organization with operations and sales in many countries around the world.

The company’s pharmaceuticals business, organized largely under its Janssen research and development organization, focuses on prescription medicines across therapeutic areas such as immunology, infectious disease, oncology and neuroscience.