Johnson & Johnson Barely Pulls Through on Strong Pharma Sales

The company gave guidance for 2015 EPS in the range of $6.12 to $6.27. The consensus estimate for 2015 earnings per share is $6.13.

Worldwide sales for the 2014 full-year were up 4.2% to $74.3 billion. Contributing to this were worldwide consumer sales of $14.5 billion, down 1.4%, and worldwide pharmaceutical sales of $32.3 billion, up 14.9%. Worldwide Medical Devices sales were $27.5 billion, which was a decrease from the previous year of 3.4%.

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The strong drug sales results were driven by new products, along with the solid core products. New products that played a role in this growth were:

• Olysio/Sovriad (simeprevir), combination treatment of chronic hepatitis C in adult patients
• Xarelto (rivaroxaban), oral anticoagulant
• Zytiga (abiraterone acetate), an oral, once-daily medication for use in combination with prednisone for the treatment of metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer
• Invokana (canagliflozin), for the treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes
• Imbruvica (ibrutinib), an oral, once-daily therapy approved for use in treating certain B-cell malignancies, or blood cancers

Alex Gorsky, chairman and CEO, said:

2014 was a strong year for Johnson & Johnson, as we delivered solid financial results while continuing to make investments to accelerate growth for the long term. We have built significant momentum in our Pharmaceutical business, are realizing the benefits of innovation, scale and breadth in our Medical Devices business and are continuing our market leadership with iconic brands in our Consumer business.

24/7 Wall St. includes recent analyst calls and rating for your consideration:

• Barclays maintained an Equal Weight rating and raised its price target to $103 from $102 on January 16.
• Jefferies maintained a Hold rating and lowered its price target to $113 from $114 on January 15.
• Goldman Sachs downgraded Johnson & Johnson to a Sell rating from Neutral and set a price target of $97 on January 15.

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Shares of Johnson & Johnson closed Friday up 1.5% at $104.04. Following the release of the earnings report, the initial response in the premarket was negative and shares were down 1% at $103.10.

The company’s stock has a consensus analyst price target of $109.07 and a 52-week trading range of $86.09 to $109.49. The market cap is about $291 billion.