Topic: How To Invest

Pat: What do you think of the prospects for Johnson & Johnson? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Johnson & Johnson, $82.32, symbol JNJ on New York (Shares outstanding: 2.8 billion; Market cap: $213.1 billion; www.jnj.com), has three divisions: Consumer (including products for babies, skin care, oral care and wound care), Pharmaceutical (which makes anti-infective, antipsychotic, contraceptive, dermatological and gastrointestinal drugs) and Medical Devices & Diagnostics (which sells equipment for circulatory disease management and orthopedic joint reconstruction). In June 2012, Johnson & Johnson paid $20.2 billion—$19.7 billion in cash plus $500 million in stock—for Switzerland-based Synthes. However, this company held cash of $2.7 billion, so the actual cost was $17.5 billion. Synthes looks like a good fit with Johnson & Johnson: the company makes a wide variety of medical devices and surgical tools, including implants that help bones heal. To win regulatory approval for the purchase, Johnson & Johnson agreed to sell Synthes’s trauma division, which makes plates and screws for broken bones. If you disregard costs to integrate Synthes and other unusual items, Johnson & Johnson would have earned $3.4…