5 Stocks to Buy Before the Next Pandemic

2. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 83

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is one of the most renowned manufacturers of biopharmaceutical products. It also offers consumer products, and medical devices. Its Janssen pharmaceutical unit developed the JnJ/Janssen single-dose vaccine for Covid-19, which showed an efficacy rate of 66.3% during clinical trials to prevent lab-confirmed Covid-19. As a giant in the industry, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) has posted dividend increases for 59 years in a row, and its yield stands at 2.56% as of June 7.

On May 23, SVB Leerink analyst David Risinger gave Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) an ‘Outperform’ rating and a $200 price target. He holds that the company should outperform given its ability to execute value-adding mergers and acquisitions, and post consistent earnings growth.

83 hedge funds reported bullish bets on Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shares at the end of the first quarter, with combined positions worth $7.4 billion. The same number of hedge funds were stakeholders in the company a quarter ago as well. With 6.65 million shares valued at $1.17 billion, Arrowstreet Capital was the biggest shareholder of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) in the first quarter of 2022.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), for the first quarter, reported an EPS of $2.67, beating estimates by $0.10. However, the quarterly revenue of $23.4 billion fell short of analysts’ expectations by nearly $192 million.

Distillate Capital, an investment firm, mentioned Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) in its Q2 2021 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“The largest additions in the rebalance, Johnson & Johnson was around 50 and 40 basis points incrementally. J&J underperformed in the quarter while its normalized free cash flows held steady and so its position size was topped off to match the stable cash flows.”