JNJ Dividend Calculator
Dividend growth rate (CAGR)
| Year | Yield | Div / share | Annual income | Yield on cost | Cumulative income | Portfolio value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.1% | $5.24 | $227.00 | 1.8% | $227.00 | $13,334 | 54.36 |
| 2 | 2.1% | $5.51 | $299.74 | 2.0% | $526.74 | $16,952 | 65.04 |
| 3 | 2.1% | $5.80 | $377.38 | 2.2% | $904.13 | $20,876 | 75.37 |
| 4 | 2.1% | $6.11 | $460.25 | 2.3% | $1,364 | $25,133 | 85.38 |
| 5 | 2.1% | $6.43 | $548.71 | 2.5% | $1,913 | $29,747 | 95.09 |
| 6 | 2.0% | $6.76 | $643.15 | 2.6% | $2,556 | $34,747 | 104.53 |
| 7 | 2.0% | $7.12 | $743.99 | 2.8% | $3,300 | $40,166 | 113.70 |
| 8 | 2.0% | $7.49 | $851.67 | 2.9% | $4,152 | $46,035 | 122.62 |
| 9 | 2.0% | $7.88 | $966.65 | 3.1% | $5,119 | $52,390 | 131.32 |
| 10 | 2.0% | $8.30 | $1,089 | 3.2% | $6,208 | $59,270 | 139.80 |
Year 1-10 dividend income (preview)
Based on a $10,000 initial investment with $200.00 monthly contributions, DRIP on.
Historical dividends per share
Recent dividends
| Ex-date | Cash amount | TTM yield | Fwd yield | Share price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-26 | $1.34 | 2.8% | 2.3% | $230.80 |
| 2026-02-24 | $1.30 | 2.1% | 2.1% | $246.28 |
| 2025-11-25 | $1.30 | 3.1% | 2.5% | $206.67 |
| 2025-08-26 | $1.30 | 3.6% | 2.9% | $176.49 |
| 2025-05-27 | $1.30 | 3.3% | 3.4% | $153.25 |
| 2025-02-18 | $1.24 | 3.2% | 3.2% | $154.99 |
| 2024-11-26 | $1.24 | 3.2% | 3.2% | $154.52 |
| 2024-08-27 | $1.24 | 3.0% | 3.0% | $162.95 |
| 2024-05-20 | $1.24 | 4.0% | 3.3% | $151.27 |
| 2024-02-16 | $1.19 | 3.8% | 3.0% | $156.55 |
| 2023-11-20 | $1.19 | 3.9% | 3.2% | $149.91 |
| 2023-08-25 | $1.19 | 2.8% | 2.9% | $166.25 |
Source: Polygon.io. Last 12 dividend distributions, most recent first. TTM yield = sum of last 12 months of payments ÷ share price on ex-date. Forward yield = this payment × detected payout frequency ÷ share price on ex-date.
About JNJ
Johnson & Johnson — ticker JNJ — is one of the longest-running dividend payers in the US equity market and a defining example of a defensive-cornerstone holding. The company has raised its dividend in each of the last sixty-plus years, placing it firmly in the "Dividend King" bracket reserved for companies with streaks of fifty years or longer. The streak has continued through every major US recession of the modern era, through multiple cycles of healthcare policy reform, and through the 2023 Kenvue spinoff that materially reshaped the company. JNJ also holds one of only two AAA corporate credit ratings issued to US companies, alongside Microsoft — a status that signals exceptional balance-sheet strength relative to the broader corporate universe.
The 2023 Kenvue spinoff deserves a clear-eyed note for dividend-focused readers. Johnson & Johnson separated its Consumer Health segment — Tylenol, Band-Aid, Listerine, Neutrogena, and the broader over-the-counter portfolio — into a standalone publicly traded company called Kenvue, and existing JNJ shareholders received Kenvue shares as part of the distribution. The structural mechanics resemble those of the 2022 AT&T / Warner Bros. Discovery spinoff in that shareholders ended up holding two stocks where they previously held one. The crucial difference is that JNJ did NOT cut its dividend after the Kenvue spinoff. The streak continues unbroken; the annual increase has been declared on schedule each year through and after the separation. That continuity is one of the central reasons JNJ remains a defensive cornerstone of many income portfolios.
Post-Kenvue, Johnson & Johnson operates in two segments rather than three: Innovative Medicine (pharmaceuticals) and MedTech (medical devices and diagnostics). The pharmaceutical business is the larger of the two by revenue and includes products in oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and infectious disease; MedTech covers surgical instruments, orthopedics, vision care, and cardiovascular devices. Both segments are characterized by high research-and-development intensity, long product-development cycles, and durable post-launch revenue streams supported by patent protection or device-design barriers. The combined business generates substantial free cash flow that comfortably covers the dividend with room left for R&D and acquisitions.
The dividend mandate has been embedded in JNJ's capital-allocation policy for so long that it functions as a structural commitment rather than a discretionary use of cash. Management has consistently prioritized maintaining and growing the dividend alongside reinvestment in the pharmaceutical and medtech pipelines, with share repurchases as a secondary lever. The AAA credit rating is partly a function of this conservative capital structure: the company carries debt, but at a level that the rating agencies treat as exceptionally low relative to the cash flow that services it. Expense ratio is not applicable to individual stocks — the figure you'll see in the calculator above is zero, since there is no fund wrapper between you and the underlying shares.
The dividend has never been cut in modern history. It has occasionally grown more slowly than longer-term averages in particular years, particularly through the talc-litigation and Kenvue-transition windows, but the per-share amount has never been reduced or suspended — which is the relevant test for a Dividend King.
How JNJ pays dividends
JNJ pays cash dividends quarterly, on a March–June–September–December cadence. The board declares the per-share amount each quarter; the ex-dividend date typically falls in the second or third week of the second month of the quarter, and the pay date falls roughly two weeks after the ex-date. Holders who own shares as of the close on the day before the ex-date receive the dividend; holders who buy on or after the ex-date wait for the next quarterly payment. On the ex-date the share price drops by approximately the distribution amount on the open, reflecting the fact that the company has paid the cash out of its balance sheet.
Holders who DRIP through their broker receive additional shares purchased at the prevailing market price around the pay date. Most major brokers offer fractional-share DRIP for JNJ, so the full cash distribution is reinvested even when the per-share amount divided by the share price doesn't produce a whole number. The mechanics are identical to any other quarterly US dividend stock — there is no managed-distribution policy, no covered-call overlay, and no return of capital. The cash that funds the dividend comes from operating free cash flow generated by the pharmaceutical and medtech businesses.
Recent growth pattern: JNJ has typically raised the quarterly per-share amount once per year, with the new rate taking effect on the dividend payment that follows the April announcement. The size of the annual hike has historically run in the mid single digits — comfortably above long-run US inflation and structurally consistent with what a mature, slow-growing healthcare conglomerate can support out of free cash flow. A meaningful share of total return for a long-horizon holder comes from the income line rather than from share-price appreciation, which is the defining shape of a mature Dividend King's return profile.
Because the increase happens once per year rather than spread over four quarters, the year-over-year dividend growth rate compounds cleanly. The calculator on this page uses a recent dividend growth rate to project the income line forward; you can override this with a custom growth rate if you want to model a more conservative or more optimistic path.
JNJ's dividends are qualified for the long-term capital-gains rate in taxable accounts, given the standard sixty-day holding-period rule. Most buy-and-hold investors clear this threshold easily. In tax-advantaged accounts the qualified-dividend treatment is moot because no current-year tax applies; the structural advantage of a long-running dividend grower is the compounding of share count via DRIP without tax friction.
Who JNJ suits
JNJ suits investors who prioritize income stability, the predictability of a six-decade streak, and a AAA-rated balance sheet over higher headline yield or faster price appreciation. The yield typically sits in the low single digits — above the broader S&P 500 average and roughly in line with other long-streak Dividend Kings, but well below the high-yield figures offered by AT&T, Verizon, or covered-call funds. The trade-off is the canonical one for a Dividend King: lower current yield in exchange for very high confidence that the dividend will continue and grow.
The most useful peer comparisons for JNJ depend on which feature a reader is weighting. Against AbbVie — another large pharma with a meaningful dividend — JNJ offers a longer streak, a stronger credit rating, and a broader business mix that includes medical devices alongside drugs; AbbVie offers a higher current yield but a much shorter dividend history as an independent company. Against KO or PG — fellow Dividend Kings in consumer-defensive sectors — JNJ offers similar long-streak quality at a similar yield level but with healthcare-specific risks (litigation, patent expirations, regulatory pricing pressure) substituting for consumer-defensive risks. Against Altria — a much higher-yield income stock — JNJ offers a higher-quality business with lower yield and far lower business-model overhang.
In taxable accounts, JNJ's dividends are qualified for the long-term capital-gains rate, given the standard holding-period rule. In tax-advantaged accounts the treatment is moot. The structural case for JNJ in a long-horizon portfolio is the combination of streak length, balance-sheet quality, and defensive business mix — features that together produce a dividend that has been treated as one of the closest things to a fixed-income substitute available in the US equity market, while still participating in the long-run upward drift of US equities.
As with any single-stock position, this content is educational only; it is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold JNJ, and individual circumstances vary. Healthcare-specific risks — including mass-tort litigation exposure and patent cliffs in the pharmaceutical pipeline — should be weighed against the dividend continuity and AAA balance sheet.
Hypothetical scenarios
Scenario 1: $10,000 invested in Johnson & Johnson at the start of 2000
Consider a hypothetical purchase of $10,000 of Johnson & Johnson stock at the start of 2000. At that point the dividend streak was already nearly four decades long, the company held an AAA credit rating, and the business mix spanned pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer health. The 2000 entry price implied a per-share figure in the low-to-mid forties on a split-adjusted basis, and the initial $10,000 would have purchased a couple hundred shares.
Holding from 2000 through to the present, with quarterly dividends reinvested via DRIP, three forces compound together. First, the per-share dividend grew each year as the company continued the streak — over the multi-decade window, the per-share figure increased many times over, supported by steady drug-pipeline output and durable medtech franchises. Second, the share count grew as DRIP reinvested every quarterly distribution at the prevailing market price; share count growth alone, independent of price, would have meaningfully increased the income line by the end of the period. Third, the share price climbed broadly in line with long-run US healthcare-sector trends, with sector-specific drawdowns at various points. The 2023 Kenvue spinoff would also have left the holder with a position in Kenvue alongside the continuing JNJ shares; for the income-line calculation, the relevant fact is that JNJ's own dividend continued through the separation without a cut.
The illustrative outcome is not a precise dollar figure. It depends on the exact reinvestment prices, dividend taxes paid along the way in a taxable account, and the specific entry and exit timing. The structural point is that all three forces — per-share dividend growth, share-count growth from DRIP, and long-run price growth — compounded against the same initial position for a multi-decade window. The annual dividend income at the end of the period is an order of magnitude larger than the year-one income, and the AAA credit rating combined with the unbroken streak through 2000s-era recessions and the 2023 spinoff provides one of the cleanest illustrations of a Dividend King in the US healthcare sector. JNJ is offered as a structural illustration, not a forecast.
Scenario 2: $50,000 today plus $500/month for 20 years
Consider a hypothetical accumulation strategy in Johnson & Johnson: $50,000 starting capital, plus $500 per month added on a regular cadence for 20 years. The calculator on this page can model this exactly — set Initial investment to $50,000, Extra contribution to $500, Contribution frequency to Monthly, time horizon to 20 years, and leave DRIP on.
The mechanics: each month, the new $500 buys additional shares at the current price, which adds to the share count and therefore to next quarter's dividend. Each quarter, the dividend received from all accumulated shares is reinvested, adding more shares at the prevailing price. Over 20 years this dual-track accumulation — DCA contributions plus dividend reinvestment — produces a position large enough that the annual dividend stream alone meets a meaningful portion of a typical income target, even before considering any potential price appreciation on the position. Because JNJ's per-share dividend growth has historically run in the mid single digits, both the share-count side and the per-share side of compounding contribute materially to the income line over a 20-year window.
What's worth focusing on in the calculator is not the year-20 portfolio total but the annual dividend column in the projection table. The first few years are slow because the base of dividend-generating shares is small; by year ten the annual dividend has grown significantly above year one as both the per-share amount and the share count have climbed; by year twenty the income line has compounded substantially. That ramp is the structural argument for combining DCA with a long-streak dividend grower like JNJ: the contribution side builds the share base while the dividend-growth side scales the income each of those shares produces. These scenarios assume the historical pattern of mid-single-digit dividend growth continues at a similar rate. Real outcomes depend on JNJ's future capital allocation, the path of healthcare-specific risks like patent expirations and mass-tort litigation, tax treatment in your specific account, and the broader path of US equity markets. Educational only; not a forecast.
Sources & methodology
Dividend history and price data come from Polygon.io's reference and aggregates endpoints. Forward yield is computed as the sum of the most recent four cash distributions divided by the previous-close share price. The dividend growth rate shown on this page is the compound annual growth rate of total annual distributions across the available history in this snapshot.
Last updated: 2026-05-15.
Information here is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Past dividend history does not guarantee future payments. Verify all figures with the issuer or a registered financial advisor before making investment decisions.