J&J Q1 net up 8 percent on sales jump, lower costs


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Johnson & Johnson's first-quarter profit rose 8 percent, because of restrained costs and a big jump in prescription drug sales.

The world's biggest maker of health care products easily beat Wall Street expectations and raised its earnings outlook, driving up its shares to a new high for the year.

The maker of Tylenol, medical devices and prescription drugs said Tuesday that net income was $4.73 billion, or $1.64 per share, up from $3.5 billion, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, income was $4.43 billion, or $1.54 per share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected $1.48.

The company, based in New Brunswick, N.J., said revenue totaled $18.12 billion, up 3.5 percent. Analysts expected $18.04 billion.

Sales of prescription drugs, currently the strongest of J&J's three business segments, jumped 11 percent to $7.5 billion as sales overseas surged 14 percent.

Meanwhile, sales for medical devices and diagnostics were flat at $7.06 billion, and sales of consumer health products fell 3.2 percent to $3.56 billion.

The consumer products business has been hit by dozens of recalls since 2009 for products including pain relievers Tylenol and Motrin. J&J is having to win back customers who switched to cheaper store brands during that period, and some of the products are still not back on store shelves. Also, the company noted that it divested its sanitary protection business.

"Johnson & Johnson delivered strong first-quarter results driven by successful new product launches and the continued growth of key products," CEO Alex Gorsky said in a statement.

In premarket trading, shares rose $2.44, or 2.5 percent, to $99.58, a new 52-week high.

The company raised its profit forecast for 2014 to $5.80 to $5.90 per share. In January, J&J forecast $5.75 to $5.85

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent Business stories

Related topics

Business
LINDA A. JOHNSON

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
    Newsletter Signup

    KSL Weather Forecast

    KSL Weather Forecast
    Play button