Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) today reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat the consensus forecast on Wall Street, but its sales numbers were slightly off amid declining medical device revenue.
The New Brunswick, N.J.–based pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products giant reported profits of $4.0 billion, or $1.50 per share, on sales of $20.7 billion for the three months ended Dec. 30, 2019, for a bottom-line gain of 31.8% and sales growth of 1.7% compared with Q4 2018.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $1.88, a penny ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking EPS of $1.87 on sales of $20.8 billion.
CEO Alex Gorsky in a news release touted the “strength of our pharmaceutical business, accelerating performance in our medical devices business and improved profitability in our consumer business.”
“As we enter into 2020 and this next decade, our strategic investments focused on advancing our pipelines and driving innovation across our entire product portfolio, position us well to deliver long-term sustainable growth and value to our shareholders,” Gorsky said.
Johnson & Johnson said it expects to log adjusted EPS of $8.95 to $9.10 in 2020, an increase of 3.1% to 4.8%, with estimated reported sales of $85.4 billion to $86.2 billion, an increase of 4% to 5%.
Investors reacted by sending JNJ shares down -1.42% to $147.15 apiece today in early trading.
Johnson & Johnson’s medical device sales were down 3.8%, to $26.0 billion, in 2019, while pharmaceutical sales were up 3.6% to $42.2 billion.
Excluding the net impact of acquisitions and divestitures, medical device sales last year were up 3.9%. Top sales drivers included electrophysiology products in the interventional solutions business, international energy and endocutter products in the advanced surgery business, and Acuvue contact lenses in the vision business.