5 Blue Chip Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaire Ray Dalio

2. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Bridgewater Associates’ Stake Value: $769,086,000

Percentage of Bridgewater Associates’ 13F Portfolio: 3.25%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 83

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is one of the largest healthcare companies in the world with a history dating back to more than 135 years. It focuses on the research and development, manufacture, and sale of a broad range of products in the healthcare field across three main segments: consumer health, pharmaceutical, and medical devices. Some of its iconic brands include Neutrogena, Aveeno, Tylenol, Listerine, Johnson’s, and Band-Aid.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is ranked #2 among the holdings of Bridgewater Associates based on its portfolio weight of 3.25% as of Q2 2022. The hedge fund holds 4,332,633 shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), 1% less than the number of shares held at the end of the previous quarter.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) released the financial results for Q2 2022 earlier this year in July. Its revenue increased by 3% y-o-y to $24 billion, while its net income decreased by 23% y-o-y to $4.8 billion, for three months ended July 3, 2022. It reported a normalized EPS of $2.59 for the quarter, beating the consensus by $0.04. It also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.13 per share.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is one of the most commonly owned stock among the 895 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey. As of Q2 2022, 83 hedge funds owned shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), valued at $6.8 billion. GQG Partners is its largest shareholder with ownership of 6.6 million shares valued at $1.2 billion.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments said about Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“We reinforced our defensive capabilities during the quarter with the addition of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), a diversified health care company with a strong balance sheet, attractive profitability and return metrics and the ability to generate steady moderate growth. It has one of the more diversified and attractive pharmaceutical portfolios and an improving medical technology business, and it will soon be exiting the lower-growth consumer business. We believe new management has sharpened the strategy to improve execution in the medical device business and look for more meaningful capital allocation opportunities, which the balance sheet can easily support.”