Buffett may consider selling J&J stock

Berkshire Hathaway Inc is holding onto its Johnson & Johnson stake for now but may consider selling it, given the company's recent problems, Berkshire chief Warren Buffett said on Monday.

J&J "obviously has messed up in a lot of ways in the last few years", Buffett said in a an interview, adding it was not clear why. The healthcare giant has issued a series of massive recalls of products ranging from artificial hips to infant Tylenol.

Buffett said J&J remains an attractive business at its price but would be on his sell list if he needed capital.

Berkshire owned 31.4 million J&J shares as of December 31, about a 1.2% stake. Buffett has listed J&J as one of Berkshire's biggest investments by valuation since 2006.

J&J recently announced that William Weldon will retire as chief executive in April and will be succeeded by Alex Gorsky, currently vice chairman of the Medical Device and Diagnostics Group.

Gorsky will be J&J's ninth top executive, all of them chosen from inside the company. Some investors say his expertise in medical devices helped him secure the top job, but they question whether yet another insider at the 125-year-old company will be able to make needed changes.

J&J shares were down 2 cents at $64.44 in early trading on Monday.