AP
(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday raised its full-year profit forecast and reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by strong demand for its newer products.
The diversified healthcare company, which completed its $ 30 billion acquisition of Swiss biotech Actelion last month, raised its 2017 profit forecast range to $ 7.12 to $ 7.22 per share, from $ 7.00 to $ 7.15.
J&J also raised the low end of its full-year revenue forecast range to $ 75.8 billion from $ 75.4 billion. It, however, kept the top end of the range unchanged at $ 76.1 billion.
Shares of the healthcare conglomerate were up 2 percent before the bell on Tuesday.
Excluding special items, the Band-Aid maker earned $ 1.83 per share in the second quarter, beating analysts’ estimates of $ 1.80 per share, helped partly by strong demand for its cancer drugs, Darzalex and Imbruvica.
However, sales of J&J’s top-selling drug, Remicade, fell 14 percent to $ 1.53 billion.
The company’s net earnings fell to $ 3.83 billion, or $ 1.40 per share, from about $ 4 billion, or $ 1.43 per share.
The company generated sales of $ 18.84 billion in the quarter, missing the average analyst estimate of $ 18.95 billion.
J&J is the first among major pharmaceutical companies to report its quarterly results, and the report comes a day after a second Republican effort to pass healthcare legislation in the Senate collapsed. (Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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