Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) closed the latest trading day at $166.09, indicating a +1.44% change from the previous session's end. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.47%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.37%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.35%.

The the stock of world's biggest maker of health care products has risen by 7.1% in the past month, leading the Medical sector's gain of 1.62% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.78%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Johnson & Johnson in its upcoming release. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $2.59, showcasing a 4.43% downward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $21.66 billion, indicating a 1.29% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $10.58 per share and a revenue of $90.03 billion, demonstrating changes of +6.01% and +1.36%, respectively, from the preceding year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Johnson & Johnson should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.03% higher. Currently, Johnson & Johnson is carrying a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at valuation, Johnson & Johnson is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 15.47. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 12.93 for its industry.

It's also important to note that JNJ currently trades at a PEG ratio of 2.63. 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 was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.41 at yesterday's closing price.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 190, which puts it in the bottom 25% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.

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Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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