Before the Call: Johnson & Johnson Jams

For more than a year now, hybrid Big Pharma/consumer products behemoth Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) has consistently trounced Wall Street's earnings results -- yet seen its stock price fall, regardless. Will its profits' relentless climb continue when Q2 2007 earning results come out tomorrow? More important to investors, will its stock price turn around?

After the news comes out, we'll have time aplenty to dissect it. But in these few hours before we begin obsessing over Johnson & Johnson's short-term progress, let's take a moment to review what investors think about it as a long-term investment. Our tool in this endeavor: Motley Fool CAPS, where we poll more than 60,000 investors for their views on over 4,000 companies, J&J among them. Here's what Fools have to say about it.

Up or down?
More than 4,500 investors have submitted ratings on Johnson & Johnson, making it the fourth-most rated stock in all of CAPS-land. Their verdict: "No more tears."

95% of CAPS investors expect Johnson & Johnson to outperform the market, which suffices to earn the stock four stars out of a possible five on CAPS.

Among its CAPS peers, Johnson & Johnson falls short of top honors by just one place:

Wall Street vs. Main Street
Wall Street is even more bullish on Johnson & Johnson. Out of the dozen analysts we track, 11 expect it to outperform the market. Pretty surprising, considering that over the last 52 weeks, the stock has underperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 20 percentage points.

Bull pitch
Christening Johnson & Johnson with the better-than-blue chip name "Azure Chip," the top-rated bull pitch on CAPS lauds the firm for its 2.2% dividend, which "has grown every year as far back as my research allows." Citing the stock's below-market-average multiple to earnings, cash-heavy balance sheet, shrinking long-term debt load, and declining share count, this CAPS player sides with Wall Street in giving J&J a firm two thumbs-up.

Bear pitch
Bears by and large cite one single factor as threatening Johnson & Johnson's future -- the political makeup of the U.S. Congress. One player sums the fear up in the pithy: "The Democrats are coming! The Democrats are coming!" Less political bears grumble over J&J's "expiring patents," hollow drug pipeline, and the growing threat from generic replacement drugs.

Who said that?
To learn the identities of the wise Fools who penned these words, to examine their records (and see whether they know whereof they speak), and to explore the plethora of additional financial data we've put together on the company, just click here.

Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handle TMFDitty, where he's currently ranked No. 701 out of more than 60,000 players. Johnson & Johnson is an Income Investor newsletter recommendation. Pfizer is an Inside Value selection.