Johnson & Johnson reports better than expected profit and sales in Q1

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) said on Tuesday that its profit and sales in the fiscal first quarter came in better than expected. The company attributed its hawkish performance partially to its pharmaceutical business. Medical devices segment, it added, also continued to recover in recent months.

Johnson & Johnson shares opened almost flat at £115.20 per share on Tuesday but jumped to £116.80 per share within a few minutes. In comparison, the stock had started the year 2021 at a lower £112.12 per share after recovering from £85.89 per share in March 2020, when the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic was at its peak.

Johnson & Johnson’s Q1 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

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Johnson & Johnson reported £4.44 billion of net income in the first quarter that translates to £1.66 per share. In the comparable quarter of last year, its net income was capped at a lower £4.16 billion, or £1.55 per share.

Adjusted for one-time items, the American multinational earned £1.86 per share in Q1. J&J valued its sales in the recent quarter at £15.99 billion that represents a 7.9% annualised growth. In the prior quarter (Q4), J&J had recorded £16.35 billion of sales.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to post £15.75 billion of sales in the first quarter. Their estimate for adjusted per-share earnings stood at a lower £1.68. In separate news from the United States, advanced technologies company Lockheed Martin raised its guidance on Tuesday as profit topped estimated in the fiscal first quarter.

Other notable figures in Johnson & Johnson’s earnings report

Other prominent figures in the New Brunswick-based company’s earnings report include a 9.6% year over year increase in pharmaceutical sales and a 10.9% growth in medical devices sales in Q1. Sales from both segments topped the FactSet consensus. COVID-19 vaccine sales, as per J&J, registered at £71.64 million.

For the full financial year, Johnson & Johnson now forecasts its adjusted per-share earnings to fall in the range of £6.76 to £6.86. The NYSE-listed company declared 72 pence per share of a quarterly dividend on Tuesday – a 5% increase from last year.

Johnson & Johnson performed slightly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of just under 10%. At the time of writing, the company that was founded in 1886 has a market capitalisation of £306.85 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 30.14.