Johnson & Johnson: profit beats forecasts; guidance raised

(CercleFinance.com) - Johnson & Johnson reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday and raised some of its full-year 2019 sales and profit forecasts.


The diversified healthcare company earned 3.7 billion dollars, or 1.39 dollar per share, in the first quarter, down from 4.4 billion dollars, or 1.60 dollar per share, a year ago.

Quarterly sales rose by just 0.1% to above 20 billion dollars.

But pharmaceutical sales, excluding acquisitions and divestitures, grew by 7.9%, in particular driven by Stelara, a treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

J&J has raised its 2019 operational sales forecast to between 82 billion and 82.8 billion dollars, and has lifted its adjusted operational EPS forecast to between 8.73 dollars to 8.83 dollars.

J&J shares were up 1.7% in premarket trading on Tuesday.

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