Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) closed at $125.72 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.59% move from the prior day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500’s daily loss of 2.48%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 2.83%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 3.04%.
Prior to today’s trading, shares of the world’s biggest maker of health care products had lost 12.52% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector’s loss of 9.67% and the S&P 500’s loss of 8.82% 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 January 22, 2019. In that report, analysts expect JNJ to post earnings of $1.95 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 12.07%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $20.11 billion, down 0.42% from the year-ago period.
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. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company’s business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.08% lower. JNJ is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.
Digging into valuation, JNJ currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.77. This represents a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 14.44.
We can also see that JNJ currently has a PEG ratio of 1.88. 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 industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.88 as of yesterday’s close.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 160, putting it in the bottom 37% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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