Johnson & Johnson Stock (JNJ): The Dividend Record, Tested

Michael Whitman · Trading since 2017, full-time since 2020 · YouTube creator, 137K subscribers · Published 2026-11-07

Johnson & Johnson stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange as JNJ. Most people looking it up want one thing: the dividend, and whether the famous run of raises is still going.

It is. The board lifted the quarterly payout to $1.34 in April 2026, the 64th year of increases by the company’s count. Dividend sites stop at the yield and a one-line growth rate. Below, we rebuilt the raise record from the price data, worked out why two honest payout ratios differ by 31 points, and put the talc cases and the Kenvue exit in the words of the filings.

JNJ’s dividend, payout and two P/Es

Price is the November 6, 2026 close. Share count, equity and the nine-month figures come from the 10-Q filed October 21, 2026; the adjusted figures come from the company’s own results schedules.

In 2026 to November 6, JNJ’s price rose 33.5%, against 7.8% for SPY, the S&P 500 fund, and 19.4% for XLV, the health care sector fund. The stock closed 0.8% below its record of $278.43 from September 3, 2026.

How it works: two businesses, a yearly raise and two kinds of EPS

Two businesses now, three before 2023. J&J reports Innovative Medicine (prescription drugs) and MedTech (surgery, orthopedics, heart devices, contact lenses). In the September 2026 quarter, Innovative Medicine sold $16.757 billion and MedTech $8.642 billion, 66.0% and 34.0% of $25.399 billion. The consumer health arm became Kenvue and left in 2023.

The dividend is set once a year. Since 1980 every raise has shown up first in the May ex-dividend date; in recent years the board has announced it in April. The rate then holds for four payments. That is why the yield on a quote screen can lag a raise by a few weeks: some sites sum the last four payments, others multiply the newest one by four.

GAAP and adjusted earnings. GAAP earnings include every charge and gain the accounting rules require. J&J’s adjusted figure removes intangible amortization and “special items”, which in recent years has mostly meant talc accruals and reversals. Big one-off items land in GAAP, so the GAAP P/E and payout ratio jump around while the adjusted ones move slowly.

A worked example: two payout ratios from the same filings

Every input is printed in the 10-Q of October 21, 2026 or the results schedules of October 13, 2026 and January 21, 2026, except the price.

1. Trailing GAAP EPS. Diluted EPS was $4.49 for January to September 2026, $11.03 for fiscal 2025 and $8.94 for January to September 2025. Last twelve months = $4.49 + $11.03 − $8.94 = $6.58.
2. Trailing adjusted EPS. The same sum on the adjusted lines: $8.19 + $10.79 − $8.33 = $10.65.
3. Dividend. $1.34 × 4 = $5.36 a year.
4. Payout ratios. $5.36 ÷ $6.58 = 81.5%. $5.36 ÷ $10.65 = 50.3%.
5. P/E. $276.22 ÷ $6.58 = 42.0, and $276.22 ÷ $10.65 = 25.9.
6. Book value. Shareholders’ equity of $81.529 billion ÷ 2,407,310,266 shares = $33.87, so price-to-book is 8.16.

The gap between the two is mostly one quarter. In July to September 2026 J&J earned $0.09 a share on a GAAP basis against $2.59 adjusted, after a $5.5 billion accrual for the proposed talc settlement. Our payout ratio page explains why one weak year can push a GAAP payout ratio past 100%.

The original data: 50 JNJ dividend raises, rebuilt

Fifty raises, rebuilt. Yahoo’s dividend record for JNJ starts in 1970, adjusted for the six stock splits since. From 1977 to 2026 the quarterly amount rose exactly once in every calendar year and never fell: 50 raises in 50 years. Before 1977 each February payment was larger than the rest of that year’s and dropped back in May, so the quarterly amounts rise and fall; counted as the total paid in each calendar year, 1970 to 1976 also rose every year. The company’s count of 64 years reaches back to 1963, before Yahoo’s record begins, so the first years of the streak rest on J&J’s own figure, not on our check.

What the 50 raises show:

• The streak is real but slowing. The median raise was 14.21% in the 1980s, 14.40% in the 1990s and 13.76% in the 2000s. It fell to 6.84% in the 2010s and 4.95% across the seven raises since 2020.
• 2026 was the smallest. The April 2026 raise, $1.30 to $1.34, was 3.08%, the lowest of the 50. The company rounds it to 3.1%.
• Ten and twenty years. The quarterly rate was $0.80 after the 2016 raise and $0.375 after the 2006 one. Going to $1.34 means 5.29% a year over ten years and 6.57% a year over twenty.
• 2009 still got one. The raise in the year of the financial crisis was 6.52%, smaller than the 10.84% of 2008 but not skipped.

Earnings move more than the dividend. From 10-K filings we took diluted EPS and dividends paid per share for every fiscal year from 2009 to 2025. Dividends paid rose in all 16 year-on-year steps, from $1.93 a share in 2009 to $5.14 in 2025. EPS fell in six of them.

Three years explain most of the swings:

• 2017: $0.47 of EPS, $3.32 of dividends. The fourth quarter lost $3.99 a share after a provisional charge of about $13.6 billion for the new US tax law. Paid out against GAAP earnings, that is 706.4%, the only year over 100%.
• 2023: $13.72. Only $5.20 came from continuing operations; $8.52 came from discontinued operations, the Kenvue business that left that August. On GAAP figures the payout fell to 34.3%.
• 2025: $11.03. The first quarter carried the reversal of about $7.0 billion of talc reserves after the third bankruptcy case was dismissed. Payout: 46.6%, down from 84.8% in 2024.

Results days are bigger than normal days, but not by much. J&J files its results before the market opens. We counted the 65 results releases from July 2005 to October 2026 whose SEC filing time proves they came out before 9:30 a.m. New York time, and measured the prior close to that day’s close. The median move was 1.66%, against 0.53% on a typical day over the same 5,361 sessions: 3.1 times as large. 31 were up, 31 down and 3 unchanged. Only three moved 5% or more: +6.07% on July 20, 2023, +6.19% on July 16, 2025 and −5.73% on October 13, 2026, the day the $5.5 billion talc charge was reported.

Download the data: JNJ dividend raises 1977-2026 and JNJ EPS, dividends and results days. Credit us and link back and you may reuse them under the site license.

Talc and Kenvue, as filed

Talc. At September 27, 2026 the 10-Q counted about 76,500 US plaintiffs suing over body powders with talc, mainly Johnson’s Baby Powder. From October 2021 the company moved the claims into subsidiaries and put them through three Chapter 11 cases; all three were dismissed, and the claims went back to ordinary courts. In July 2026 it announced a plan to resolve the ovarian cancer claims with a $5.5 billion commitment, conditioned on, among other things, at least 95% of the remaining claims taking part. The plan does not cover the mesothelioma cases. The company puts the present value of its whole talc reserve at about $9.0 billion, with roughly half recorded as a current liability. It also says it believes it has strong legal grounds to contest the talc verdicts it has appealed.

Kenvue. Kenvue listed in an initial public offering in May 2023. J&J then offered its own holders the chance to swap JNJ shares for Kenvue shares. The offer was oversubscribed and expired at the end of August 18, 2023: J&J took back 190,955,436 of its own shares and handed over 1,533,830,450 Kenvue shares, keeping about 9.5% of Kenvue. The cover of J&J’s 10-Q went from 2,598,969,594 shares in July 2023 to 2,407,278,620 in October, 7.4% fewer. A holder who did not swap kept the same JNJ shares and the same dividend per share.

Orthopaedics next. On October 14, 2025 J&J said it intends to separate its Orthopaedics business as a company called DePuy Synthes within 18 to 24 months. The September 2026 schedules already carry a separation-cost line of $369 million before tax for the quarter.

How JNJ held up in sell-offs

We measured total return (price plus reinvested dividends) in three bad stretches for the market:

From the end of 1999 to November 6, 2026, JNJ returned 9.65% a year with dividends reinvested, against 8.06% for SPY. Our drawdown page explains how these falls are measured.

When it fails: price falls, smaller raises, talc charges and separations

A steady dividend is not a steady price. JNJ still lost a third of its value in 2008-2009 and a quarter in five weeks of 2020. Over the ten years to November 2026 its daily swings were no calmer than the market’s: annualized volatility of 19.1%, against 18.0% for SPY.

Slower raises mean slower income growth. A raise streak can continue for decades with the raises themselves shrinking toward zero, and the count of years says nothing about the size.

Litigation hits GAAP earnings in lumps. Talc accruals took GAAP EPS to $0.09 in one quarter and reversals lifted it in another. Any screen that ranks stocks on GAAP P/E or GAAP payout will flag JNJ at the wrong moments in both directions.

Parts leave the company. Kenvue went in 2023 and Orthopaedics is planned to go. Each separation changes the sales, margins and growth rate of what is left, so ten-year averages describe a different company.

Questions people ask

How much is the JNJ dividend?

$1.34 a share each quarter since the June 9, 2026 payment, or $5.36 a year at that rate. At the November 6, 2026 close of $276.22 that is a 1.94% yield. Our dividend yield page shows the sum.

How many years has Johnson & Johnson raised its dividend?

The company says April 2026 was the 64th year in a row, counting from 1963. Yahoo’s record starts in 1970; from 1977 it shows a quarterly raise in every one of those 50 years, and the yearly totals rose in 1970-1976 too. The years before 1970 rest on the company’s count. S&P’s dividend aristocrats rule asks for only 25.

What is JNJ’s payout ratio?

It depends on the earnings figure: 81.5% of trailing GAAP EPS of $6.58, or 50.3% of trailing adjusted EPS of $10.65, both through September 27, 2026. Sites that show 75% or 81% use their own earnings figure, dividend or date.

Why is JNJ’s P/E so high?

On GAAP earnings it is 42.0 because the September 2026 quarter carried a $5.5 billion talc accrual. On the company’s adjusted earnings it is 25.9. See our P/E ratio page for what each version captures.

Did JNJ shareholders get Kenvue shares?

Only those who chose to swap in the 2023 exchange offer, and because it was oversubscribed only part of each tender was accepted. Holders who did nothing kept their JNJ shares and no Kenvue shares.

Related

The rules behind streak lists are on dividend aristocrats, and dividend growth shows what a slower raise rate does over decades. For the payout math see payout ratio, and for reinvesting the payments see dividend reinvestment. How dividends are taxed in a taxable account is on dividend tax.

This page is educational, not financial advice. Test every idea on your own charts before risking money.