JNJ vs. MRK, ABBV, PFE, BMY, LLY, AZN, NVS, ABT, SNY, and NVO
Should you be buying Johnson & Johnson stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Johnson & Johnson include Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), AbbVie (ABBV), Pfizer (PFE), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Sanofi (SNY), and Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical preparations" industry.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, community ranking, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and profitability.
Johnson & Johnson has higher revenue and earnings than Merck & Co., Inc.. Johnson & Johnson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Merck & Co., Inc., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Johnson & Johnson received 115 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.97% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote while only 64.91% of users gave Johnson & Johnson an outperform vote.
Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Johnson & Johnson pays an annual dividend of $4.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 342.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Johnson & Johnson pays out 29.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Merck & Co., Inc. has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Johnson & Johnson has raised its dividend for 63 consecutive years. Johnson & Johnson is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Johnson & Johnson has a net margin of 45.26% compared to Johnson & Johnson's net margin of 3.76%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity of 36.43% beat Johnson & Johnson's return on equity.
Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.39, indicating that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Johnson & Johnson has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.
76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.6% of Johnson & Johnson shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Johnson & Johnson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Johnson & Johnson had 18 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 44 mentions for Johnson & Johnson and 26 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Johnson & Johnson's average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s score of 0.56 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus target price of $131.33, suggesting a potential upside of 1.85%. Johnson & Johnson has a consensus target price of $175.86, suggesting a potential upside of 17.75%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Johnson & Johnson is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..
Summary
Johnson & Johnson beats Merck & Co., Inc. on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding JNJ and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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