New York, May 25, 2022 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") affirmed the Aaa long-term ratings of Johnson & Johnson ("J&J"), as well as the Prime-1 short-term rating. At the same time, Moody's revised the outlook to stable from negative.
"The outlook change to stable from negative reflects J&J's ongoing progress at resolving litigation uncertainties. Combined with strong operating performance and rising cash levels, J&J is likely to absorb litigation liabilities without material credit profile degradation," stated Michael Levesque, Moody's Senior Vice President.
"The affirmation of J&J's Aaa rating considers significant global scale and market presence, excellent diversity, and a strong financial profile even with the upcoming separation of the consumer products business," continued Levesque.
Social and governance considerations are relevant to the rating action. Progress at resolving opioid and talc litigation reduces social risk exposures related to customer relations and responsible production, contributing to the outlook change to stable from negative. Further, the affirmation of the Aaa rating reflects J&J's strong governance practices including a conservative approach to financial strategy and risk management and a successful track record.
Affirmations:
..Issuer: Johnson & Johnson
….Senior unsecured rating, affirmed Aaa
….Senior unsecured MTN program, affirmed (P)Aaa
.....Senior unsecured Shelf, affirmed (P)Aaa
….Issuer rating, affirmed Aaa
….Commercial paper, affirmed Prime-1
Outlook Actions:
..Issuer: Johnson & Johnson
....Outlook, Changed to Stable from Negative
RATINGS RATIONALE
J&J's Aaa rating reflects the company's large scale and market presence, strong product and geographic diversity, and high margins. J&J's well-performing pharmaceutical unit will generate mid-to-high single digit growth, driving total company revenue growth in the mid-single digits. Blockbusters like Darzalex and Tremfya will contribute to strong growth, as will ongoing launches from the pipeline. Based on J&J's long-held conservative financial policies, Moody's anticipates deleveraging through earnings growth resulting in debt/EBITDA sustained below 1.5x.
Tempering these strengths, J&J's largest product, Stelara, will face biosimilar competition in several years. J&J's planned separation of its consumer products unit will reduce scale, diversity and earnings. Cash outlays related to litigation will constrain free cash flow for the next several years, and resolution of talc litigation is not complete. Other social risks including global pricing pressure, and policy risks related to drug pricing. In addition, there is event risk related to debt-funded acquisitions.
Social and governance considerations are material to J&J's rating. J&J faces highly negative social risk exposures, reflected in the S-4 issuer profile score. However, ongoing resolution of opioid and talc litigation has reduced this exposure and resulted in a revised score, which was previously S-5, signifying very highly negative exposures. The S-4 issuer profile score also considers social risk exposures stemming from demographics and societal trends. While these trends are favorable from a healthcare utilization standpoint, they are also driving healthcare payers to implement measures curbing healthcare spending. In particular, numerous regulatory and legislative proposals in the US market are aimed at drug pricing. J&J's diversity outside of pharmaceuticals will help buffer it from these risks relative to pure-play pharmaceutical companies. J&J's governance issuer profile score is G-1, representing positive governance considerations. This reflects J&J's strong corporate governance practices, a successful track record and a conservative approach to financial policies and risk management. The ESG Credit Impact Score is CIS-3, moderately negative. There is limited credit impact to date, but there is potential for social risk factors like litigation or drug pricing measures to cause credit profile deterioration over time.
The outlook is stable, reflecting Moody's expectations for strong operating performance and additional progress at resolving litigation.
FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS
Factors that could lead to a downgrade include increasing exposure to litigation uncertainties, large debt-financed acquisitions or share repurchases, or changes in financial policies such that debt/EBITDA is sustained above 1.5x.
New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson ("J&J") is one of the world's largest healthcare companies, with 2021 revenues of approximately $94 billion.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Pharmaceuticals published in November 2021 and available at https://ratings.moodys.com/api/rmc-documents/356413. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on https://ratings.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found on https://ratings.moodys.com/rating-definitions.
For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the issuer/deal page for the respective issuer on https://ratings.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.
These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website https://ratings.moodys.com.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.
Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://ratings.moodys.com/documents/PBC_1288235.
At least one ESG consideration was material to the credit rating action(s) announced and described above.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on https://ratings.moodys.com.
The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the UK and is endorsed by Moody's Investors Service Limited, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5FA under the law applicable to credit rating agencies in the UK. Further information on the UK endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on https://ratings.moodys.com.
Please see https://ratings.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.
Please see the issuer/deal page on https://ratings.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Michael Levesque, CFA
Senior Vice President
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Ola Hannoun-Costa
Associate Managing Director
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376
Client Service: 1 212 553 1653