Monday, February 06, 2006

Where's the talk on JNJ?

First of all, I'm sure someones writing about Johnson and Johnson (and if you have some links, please put them in the comment section).
I'm semi-surprised I haven't been reading too much about the JNJ valuation. Right now everything seems to be about Guidant, Boston Sci, and if JNJ will buy St. Jude Medical (STJ).

JNJ has been sliding from about April, when it was near $70, to now when it is under $57. Much of this slide is due to uncertainties regarding the merger, if they are buying STJ, and how will they promote growth. On a very basic valuation level it seems to be on the cheap side compared to its historic average. It's price to sales ratio is about 3.37. It hasn't been this low since 1996! Over the past decade or so it has ranged from about 3.5 to 5.5. So on a price/sales basis it looks relatively cheap (but this is definitely one small part). Now in 1996 it had profit margins of about 13%, but today they are around 20%.
I wouldn't be surprised (once certain issues die down a bit) if some publications (Barron's, Fool, etc.) comes out with an article about JNJ- because if it keeps on sliding, it will be worth a second look.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here's an interesting article from Morningstar about J&J:

http://news.morningstar.com/article/article.asp?id=155720&pgid=wwhome1a

It sounds like your analysis of the company is spot on. I'd buy it if only I had an income.