It's not cyclical enough to thrive. They're diversified in pharma (drugs) and medical devices. The former benefited from the lockdown from a stockpile in meds they were able to still sell, but now he doesn't know if medical devices can fully benefit from the backlog of surgeries that is being addressed now. Doesn't know if JNJ leads in medical devices. Also, JNJ isn't cyclical, which is where should be flowing. JNJ is trying to respond to the rise of robotic surgery by Intuitive Surgical, which he prefers. This take time and research for JNJ, which means Intuitive will still be ahead of JNJ. JNJ as a defensive will underperform cyclicals, which is where the market is heading as we exit this recession.
They currently have an effective business plan to reduce costs and close their profitablility gap with Home Depot. Also, they are driving volume to their website, and making more attractive their offerings to professional builders and renovators. The neighbourhoods they service are seeing the most robust economic performance, which is a big change. Historically, Home Depot used to benefit from its exposure to big cities, which has suffered from recent lockdowns. Therefore, Lowes offers better upside than Home Depot given store locations. (Analysts’ price target is $181.44)