New York, February 20, 2026, 2:28 PM EST — Regular session
Johnson & Johnson was changing hands at $243.81, off 1.3% Friday afternoon, after dipping to $240.43 earlier. Shares had fallen $3.10 compared with the previous close, with trading volume at roughly 7.8 million shares.
Just a day after Reuters broke the news, Johnson & Johnson is said to be weighing a sale of its DePuy Synthes orthopedics business, a deal that could fetch upwards of $20 billion. Private equity buyers are apparently circling. DePuy brought in $9.3 billion in 2025 revenue and has faced waves of litigation over its hip implants; as of Feb. 2, nearly all of the roughly 10,600 lawsuits tied to its ASR device were settled, leaving 128 still unresolved, according to the same report. CFO Joe Wolk has previously pointed to a tax-free spinoff as the likely path, though he’s left the door open to alternatives and has said not to expect significant news until mid-2026. Johnson & Johnson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters noted.
Why now? Investors want clarity on J&J’s future direction—and the price tag attached. On Wednesday, J&J committed over $1 billion to a cell-therapy facility in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It’s a slice of a larger plan the company unveiled last year: more than $55 billion earmarked for U.S. manufacturing and research upgrades through early 2029. The company hasn’t revealed when the new plant will go live. Once it’s up and running, J&J anticipates employing more than 4,000 people during construction, plus 500 permanent biomanufacturing staff.
Cell therapy—industry shorthand for using live cells as treatment—relies on tightly regulated manufacturing. The field is expanding fast, though scaling up remains tough and building facilities doesn’t come cheap.
Shareholders generally get stock in the new company without triggering taxes right away in a tax-free spinoff, but the process can drag on and comes with its own execution hurdles. A straight sale? Quicker, yes, but brings up its own issues: price, who’s willing to buy, and what J&J does with the cash.
CEO Joaquin Duato called the new facility “an honor” for Johnson & Johnson, saying in a statement the company has been pushing innovation in American healthcare for 140 years and intends to keep building on that record in Pennsylvania. JNJ.com
The company highlighted new oncology results Thursday, reporting that its experimental subcutaneous amivantamab (RYBREVANT FASPRO), when used with pembrolizumab, showed a 56% overall response rate among a small group of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer. That metric, overall response rate, tracks the proportion of patients experiencing tumor shrinkage during a trial. “From a clinical perspective, rapid and durable disease control is an important goal in the first-line treatment of head and neck cancer,” said Ranee Mehra, a University of Maryland oncologist and Johnson & Johnson consultant. JNJ.com
Stocks in the U.S. climbed Friday morning after the Supreme Court tossed out President Donald Trump’s tariffs, pushing risk appetite higher in the early session.
Still, plenty could derail things here. Maybe the DePuy talks stall, or the offer comes in underwhelming. And let’s say there is a sale—J&J’s timing could be off, giving up a reliable cash machine when they shouldn’t. Over on the investment front, scaling up U.S. manufacturing often brings headaches—delays, surprise costs. Plus, promising early trial data doesn’t guarantee success in later phases, or a green light from regulators.
Attention now shifts to an official update from the company: will DePuy get sold off, or spun out? Management’s upcoming appearance at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference on March 10 could shed some light. Executives are set for a fireside chat at 11:30 a.m. ET.
