Jefferies Downgrades Johnson & Johnson to a “Hold” Rating (JNJ)

Pharmaceutical goods manufacturing company, Johnson & Johnson( JNJ ) has been downgraded to a "Hold" by Jefferies on Monday.

The firm has downgraded JNJ from a "Buy" to a "Hold," and has lowered its price target from $78 to $75. This price target suggests a 6.8% increase over the stock's current price of $69.87.

An analyst from the firm commented, "we upgraded J&J to Buy in June on the back of the re-engineered financing of the Synthes merger, which was highly accretive in our view. We looked for the shares to re-rate to a 10-15% market premium from the 1% discount at the time. Most of this move has occurred now and with the MD&D day postponed and reimbursement pressures intensifying we see the shares as fairly valued."

Johnson & Johnson shares were mostly flat during premarket trading Monday. The stock is up 6.54% YTD.

The Bottom Line
We have been recommending shares of Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) since Apr.27, 2012, when the stock was trading at $64.75. The company has a 3.49% dividend yield, based on Friday's closing stock price of $69.87.

Johnson & Johnson( JNJ ) is a "Recommended" dividend stock at this time, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks , as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here .