Johnson & Johnson swings to Q4 black

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) today reported a return to black ink for the fourth quarter and set its financial forecast for the rest of the year.

The New Brunswick, N.J.-based healthcare giant posted profits of $3.04 billion, or $1.12 per share, on sales of $20.39 billion for the quarter, for a 1.0% top-line gain over Q4 2017, when J&J posted losses of -$10.71 billion.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $1.97, 2¢ ahead of the consensus forecast on Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $20.17 billion.

Full-year profits were $15.30 billion , or $5.61 per share, on sales of $81.58 billion. Adjusted EPS came in at $8.18, again 2¢ above The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $8.37 billion.

“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,” chairman & CEO Alex Gorsky said in prepared remarks. “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.

Johnson & Johnson said it expects to log adjusted EPS of $8.50 to $8.65 this year, on sales of $80.4 billion to $81.2 billion – well below The Street’s consensus at adjusted EPS of $8.61 and sales of $82.68 billion.

JNJ shares were off -1.5% to $128.71 apiece today in pre-market trading.