NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 12:44 ET — Regular session
- JNJ shares are down slightly in midday trading as investors digest the closing of its Halda Therapeutics acquisition.
- The company said the deal will reduce adjusted EPS by about $0.20 split between 2025 and 2026.
- Barclays raised its price target to $217 while keeping an Equal Weight rating ahead of J&J’s January earnings.
Johnson & Johnson shares edged lower on Tuesday after the company said it completed its $3.05 billion cash purchase of cancer-therapy developer Halda Therapeutics. The stock was down about 0.2% at $207.12 in midday trading. Executive vice president Jennifer Taubert called the closing a “strategic milestone” as J&J flagged about $0.20 of dilution to adjusted earnings per share — profit per share excluding certain one-time items — split between 2025 and 2026. 1
The closing gives J&J a new platform aimed at developing oral, targeted cancer medicines and adds a clinical-stage prostate cancer program as the company leans into oncology.
It also keeps J&J’s dealmaking strategy in focus ahead of its year-end results, with investors watching how the drugmaker offsets growth headwinds from looming patent expiries, including on blockbuster immunology drug Stelara. Reuters has previously reported that J&J’s recent acquisitions include a $14.6 billion purchase of neurological drug maker Intra-Cellular Therapies earlier this year. 2
Halda’s lead asset, HLD-0915, is a first-in-class “RIPTAC” approach designed to bring targets together inside cancer cells, a mechanism researchers hope can help when tumors stop responding to standard therapies. MD Anderson Cancer Center has said the drug is designed to simultaneously target the androgen receptor and BRD4, a protein involved in prostate cancer survival. 3
Investors’ next read on the deal’s financial impact is likely to come with J&J’s fourth-quarter 2025 results on Jan. 21, when the company is expected to discuss its full-year 2026 outlook. 4
On the Street, Barclays raised its price target on J&J to $217 from $197 and kept an Equal Weight rating, pointing to signs of upside to consensus expectations for the fourth quarter driven by prescription and sales trends in key brands including Darzalex, Tremfya and Simponi, TheFly reported. An Equal Weight rating typically signals an expectation that the stock will perform in line with the analyst’s coverage universe rather than outperforming it. 5
The stock’s muted move came as the broader market and healthcare sector also drifted lower, with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF down less than 0.1% and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF off about 0.3%.
Beyond the Halda closing, traders remain focused on whether J&J’s biggest drug franchises can keep pace with rising competition and the industrywide push to find the next wave of growth assets.
The January earnings call will also put a spotlight on how management frames 2026 margins and cash deployment after another large deal, including the cadence of integration costs and any updates on pipeline priorities.
Separately, J&J remains under close scrutiny for legal risk tied to talc litigation, a long-running overhang that can sway sentiment even when day-to-day trading is driven by product and earnings expectations. A Baltimore jury last week ordered the company to pay more than $1.5 billion in a talc-related case, and J&J said it would appeal. 6
For now, JNJ has stayed in a tight range, with investors largely waiting for clearer signposts on 2026 guidance and how quickly the Halda platform can translate into clinical milestones.
