In the latest trading session, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) closed at $162.84, marking a +0.02% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.64% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.85%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.31%.

Shares of the world's biggest maker of health care products witnessed a gain of 4.27% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Medical sector with its loss of 0.88% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.69%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Johnson & Johnson in its upcoming release. The company plans to announce its earnings on April 15, 2025. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $2.59, signifying a 4.43% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $21.66 billion, up 1.29% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $10.58 per share and revenue of $90.03 billion, which would represent changes of +6.01% and +1.36%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Johnson & Johnson. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the company's business operations and its ability to generate profits.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. Johnson & Johnson is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Johnson & Johnson currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.38. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 14.59.

Also, we should mention that JNJ has a PEG ratio of 2.61. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.31 as of yesterday's close.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 70, this industry ranks in the top 28% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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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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