J&J's Growing Pharma Unit Helps Company Overcome Currency Woes

(Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnson’s booming pharmaceutical unit is driving the health-care conglomerate’s business, leading the company to raise its full-year earnings guidance after trimming it a quarter ago because of foreign exchange rates.

Sales at the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company’s drug division were up 6.7 percent in the third quarter, to $10.3 billion, the company said in a statement. Overall, J&J forecast adjusted earnings this year of $8.13 to $8.18 a share.

Key Insights

• For the first time in at least a decade, drugs made up more than half the company’s quarterly sales. The company’s consumer unit is growing, but not as quickly as the drugs business. Medical device sales were down.
• The strong dollar continues to hurt J&J. While international sales grew 7.5 percent on an operational basis, currency fluctuations trimmed 4 percentage points of that growth. In July, the company cut its earnings forecast for the year because of foreign exchange rates.

Market Reaction

J&J’s stock has trailed the S&P this year so far, and is down 4.1 percent year-to-date compared to a 2.9 percent gain in the index. The health-care company’s shares were up 0.5 percent in thin trading before the market opened.

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For more details on the company’s results, click here.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jared S. Hopkins in New York at jhopkins38@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net

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