UPDATE: Jefferies Downgrades Johnson & Johnson to Hold, Lowers PT

In a report published Monday, Jefferies downgraded Johnson & Johnson

from Buy to Hold, and reduced price target form $78 to $75. Jefferies noted, "Whilst we still see the potential for J&J shares to outperform through more aggressive capital allocation, we have little evidence to formally model this at present. We had hoped that the MD&D day, which has now been postponed due to hurricane Sandy, could have provided a platform to raise expectations either around capital allocation or balance sheet leverage. We will have to wait for now and we prefer to do this from the sidelines as our current valuation provides limited upside against a worsening environment for reimbursement in both the US and Europe. Our target price of $75 is calculated by placing our 2014E EPS estimate on a 10%-20% premium to the U.S. market PE." Johnson & Johnson closed at $69.87 on Friday.