Johnson & Johnson talc settlement to alleviate overhang, says Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse keeps a Neutral rating and $170 price target on Johnson & Johnson after the company’s subsidiary LTL’s announced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy while agreeing to resolve current and future claims of talc litigation in North America with $8.9B settlement – up from $2.0B at the time of LTL’s initial bankruptcy filing in October 2011. This announcement should alleviate the uncertainty on Talc claims, which has overshadowed the stock, though the upsized liability removes 2% from the firm’s discount cash value model, the analyst tells investors in a research note.