We’re at the end of earnings season. That means it’s time for analysts to weigh in on the outlook for specific stocks. While there’s cautious optimism about how the second half of the year will go, the outlook for the current quarter may still be tricky for investors to navigate.
Many investors look at analysts' estimates to help maintain a long-term outlook. These individuals typically work for investment banks, brokerages, or investment management firms. They have access to information, including access to company insiders, that retail investors lack. They use this to assign ratings and price targets to their assigned stocks.
Not surprisingly, the largest companies receive the most analyst coverage. These companies have large institutional ownership, which means a company’s stock is widely held in 401(k) plans and other ETFs.
Analysts will usually wait a day or so after a company reports earnings to issue a rating and/or price target. When they do, it can cause a strong move in these stocks.
Here are three blue-chip companies with strong analyst support that should support a higher stock price.
Johnson & Johnson Has Become Too Cheap to Ignore
[content-module:DividendStats|NYSE:JNJ]It might surprise some investors to see Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) on this list. The stock has delivered a negative total return of around 4.1% in the last three years. That’s due in no small part to the legal battles that are still with the company even as it spun off its consumer products division into Kenvue Inc. (NYSE: KVUE).
However, investors are intrigued by what’s left of the company. The company’s Innovative Medicine segment has several drugs in clinical-stage trials. This includes areas like oncology, immunology, and neurology. It's also considered to be a leader in precision medicine, which seeks to find individualized treatments based on a patient’s genetic profile.
The long-term payoff may still be years away. However, analysts seem to like what they see here and now. JNJ stock is up 6.2% this year, outpacing the broader market. In May, the stock broke a bearish pattern of making lower highs and lower lows, and the stock price seems to be finding a higher level of support around $150.
With a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of around 14.3x, the stock is trading at a discount to its three- and five-year averages. Analysts have a consensus price target of $170.88 on JNJ stock, which gives investors 11% upside in addition to a rock-solid dividend that yields 3.38% as of June 4.
It's Still a Good Time to Buy the Dip on This Big Oil Stock
[content-module:DividendStats|NYSE:XOM]Energy stocks have lagged the market in 2025. Investors may have misinterpreted what the Trump administration’s energy agenda was going to do to the price of oil. That’s currently in the low $60 range, and some industry observers believe it will go into the $50s and maybe lower if the economy continues to lose steam.
Assuming that bear case, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) remains a solid buy. That’s because the company has outlined its efforts to raise its breakeven costs to the mid-$30 range by 2027. The breakeven cost is the cost at which it remains profitable to extract oil.
However, taking an optimistic view of the Trump administration’s long-term agenda suggests stronger industrial activity, which would, at the very least, put a floor on oil prices. That would mean long-term investors should be less concerned about the XOM stock floor and position themselves to capitalize on what higher crude oil prices will mean for the stock.
Analysts are maintaining a consensus price target of $125.50. That gives investors about 22% upside in the stock price. That goes along with a dividend that has a dividend yield of 3.26%.
Home Depot Isn’t the Fixer Upper Some May Think
[content-module:DividendStats|NYSE:HD]Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is down 3.6% in 2025 and acknowledged that consumers are holding off on big projects. However, the April housing data from the U.S. Census Bureau isn’t as bleak as it may seem. New home sales reached a multi-year high annualized pace of 743,000 units.
Analysts also believe that HD stock will get back to growth with more clarity around tariffs. That would support Harvard University’s Leading Indicator of Remodeling (LIRA) index that points to 2.5% growth in remodeling and home-upgrade outlays through the first quarter of 2026.
HD stock appears to have formed a bottom in April and has been in a bullish pattern that was supported by better-than-expected earnings. Analysts have a consensus price target of $426.77 on the stock, which is a 13.8% upside to go along with a dividend that has increased at an average annualized rate of over 10% over the last three years and currently yields 2.45%.
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