Johnson & Johnson Inc. (J&J: NYSE)
Johnson & Johnson reported solid fourth quarter earnings as stronger cancer drug sales and Psoriasis treatments helped the company register a profit after posting a wide loss a year earlier. The health care giant reported the financial results before the opening bell on Tuesday. However, shares slipped by 1.7% to change hands at $128.38 apiece.
The stock has lost 11.8% in the last twelve months, while the S&P 500 has declined 5.7%. Johnson & Johnson issued full-year guidance for 2019 and expects profit to be in line with estimates though revenue outlook fell shy of Wall Street estimates.
J&J Earnings & Forecast
Johnson & Johnson swung to a profit of $3.04 billion, or $1.12 per share in the fourth quarter from a loss of $10.713 billion, or $3.99 a share in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, earnings per share came to $1.97 above the FactSet consensus of $1.95. Revenue rose 1% to $20.4 billion also exceeding the Factset Consensus of $20.2 billion.
For the full year, Johnson & Johnson posted adjusted earnings of $22.3 billion, or $8.18 per share on sales of $81.6 billion. For 2019, the company expects adjusted earnings per share of $8.50 to $8.65 on sales of $80.4 billion to $81.2 billion. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv said they expected $82.69 billion in revenue and adjusted EPS of $8.60.
Johnson & Johnson CEO Comments
Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Alex Gorsky stated, “Johnson & Johnson delivered another year of strong operational sales growth of 6.3% and achieved our 35th consecutive year of adjusted operational earnings growth at 9.8% in 2018. This can be attributed to accelerated underlying sales performance across each of our businesses, where we also leveraged our scale across the enterprise to improve margins.”
“Looking ahead, the strength of our broad-based business and disciplined approach to portfolio management positions us to continue to fuel investments in innovation that enable us to capitalize on strategic opportunities and deliver strong performance over the long-term,” Gorky concluded.
Johnson & Johnson Profile
Johnson & Johnson is a holding company, which engages in the research and development, manufacture and sale of products in the health care field. It operates through the following segments: Consumer, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Devices.
The Consumer segment includes products used in the baby care, oral care, beauty, over-the-counter pharmaceutical, women’s health, and wound care markets. The Pharmaceutical segment focuses on therapeutic areas such as immunology, infectious diseases ad vaccines, neuroscience, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolism, and pulmonary hypertension.
The Medical Devices segment offers products used in the orthopedic, surgery, cardiovascular, diabetes care, and eye health fields. Johnson & Johnson was founded by Robert Wood Johnson I, James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson Sr. in 1886 and is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey. – CNN Money
