JNJ vs. MRK, ABBV, PFE, LLY, AZN, NVS, ABT, NVO, SNY, and REGN
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), Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO), Sanofi (SNY), and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN). 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 superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends and earnings.
76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.6% of Johnson & Johnson shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Johnson & Johnson shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
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 36.70% beat Johnson & Johnson's return on equity.
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 $4.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. 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 30.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Merck & Co., Inc. has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Johnson & Johnson has increased 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 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.
Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Johnson & Johnson has a beta of 0.55, suggesting that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus target price of $131.33, indicating a potential upside of 1.24%. Johnson & Johnson has a consensus target price of $175.86, indicating a potential upside of 18.19%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Johnson & Johnson is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..
In the previous week, Johnson & Johnson had 25 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 43 mentions for Johnson & Johnson and 18 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Johnson & Johnson's average media sentiment score of 0.73 beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s score of 0.39 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Johnson & Johnson received 116 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 64.93% of users gave Johnson & Johnson an outperform vote.
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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