Bernstein analyst Lee Hambright upgraded Johnson & Johnson to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $155, up from $148. The shares in premarket trading are up $1.94, or 1.5%, to $131. The stock is "historically cheap," currently trading at a 17% discount to its sum-of-the-parts and a 13% discount to the S&P 500 Index, Hambright tells investors in a research note. The analyst, who believes J&J will resolve its legal liability for $10B-$12B, says the shares reflect a worst case scenario with $50B of liabilities being priced in. Following discussions with legal experts, Hambright has a "hard time seeing the worst-case scenarios playing out." The analyst estimates Johnson & Johnson faces about $5B of liability for opioids, another $5B for talc, and $800M for Risperdal.

BofA analyst Geoff Meacham lowered the firm's price target on Johnson & Johnson to $170 from $180 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. Shares traded down despite a "solid" Q1 and unchanged reported guidance midpoint, which the firm suspects was due to disappointing Carvykti sales and the Vision business, the analyst tells investors. The firm, which thinks commercial execution from key growth franchises remains the focus and investor sentiment can improve on better-than-expected quarterly performance and pipeline readouts, argues that 2024 guidance looks "beatable," but lowers its price target on a lower Carvykti sales outlook.