Based on the aggregated intelligence of 145,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, health-care products behemoth Johnson & Johnson
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at J&J's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
J&J facts
Headquarters (Founded) |
New Brunswick, N.J. (1886) |
Market Cap |
$178.46 billion |
Industry |
Pharmaceuticals |
Trailing-12-Month Revenue |
$60.53 billion |
Management |
Chairman/CEO William Weldon (since 2002) |
Major Brands |
Band-Aid, Listerine, Lubriderm, Neutrogena, Sudafed, Tylenol |
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) |
24.5% |
Cash / Debt |
$14.3 billion / $11.6 billion |
Dividend Yield |
3% |
Competitors |
Procter & Gamble |
CAPS Members Bullish on JNJ Also Bullish on |
General Electric |
CAPS Members Bearish on JNJ Also Bearish on |
Google |
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 96% of the 335 members who have rated J&J believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include bobbyabull and Jim2B.
Just last month, bobbyabull tapped J&J as an essential part of any prudent portfolio: "Great American company; well managed with strong product line, drug pipeline and dividend. A must-own, sleep at night stock that counter-balances that risky small cap you also covet!"
In a pitch from one month earlier, Jim2B elaborates on J&J as an ideal choice for defensive-minded Fools. Here's an excerpt:
[J&J's] sterling financial strength and proven management team provides it a great deal of protection against possible declines in the economy. … Now with the prospect of a government run health care bill raising punitive taxes upon any company in that sector, expect the price to remain depressed until everything sorts out. Still, given the fact that [J&J] has a lot of non-health care related business over which it can distribute those taxes, it should not be as adversely affected as say [Pfizer
(NYSE:PFE) ] or [Merck(NYSE:MRK) ]. … Overall, I'd say that [J&J] is a safe bet with reasonable upside and limited downside.
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