JNJ Johnson and Johnson

By Allison Prang 

Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceuticals business helped drive sales growth at the company for the latest quarter but the health-products giant's U.S. consumer business continued to struggle.

J&J's sales rose 11% from a year ago to $20.83 billion. Sales in the pharmaceuticals division rose 20%, the largest increase among J&J segments. J&J's consumer segment sales in the U.S. fell 0.7%. World-wide sales in the consumer division rose 0.7% to $3.5 billion.

The New Jersey-based company said it now expects sales to be between $80.5 billion and $81.3 billion for the year, compared with its prior estimates of between $81 billion and $81.8 billion. J&J said Tuesday that its sales will receive a smaller-than-expected benefit from currency fluctuations.

J&J's profit rose 3.3% to $3.95 billion, or $1.45 a share.

The company narrowed its annual profit target to between $8.07 a share and $8.17 a share on an adjusted basis compared with its previous estimates of between $8 a share and $8.20 a share.

Shares of the company, down 11% this year, rose 0.5% premarket.

J&J also reported $57 million in restructuring costs in the second quarter, up from $11 million a year earlier.

By 2022, J&J aims to cut between $600 million and $800 million in supply chain costs a year, which the company expects will result in as much $2.3 billion in charges over the next few years.

A jury last week awarded $4.69 billion to women and their families who alleged that the firm's talcum powder caused ovarian cancer. There have been hundreds of lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson over the baby powder, some of which have been overturned. The company plans to appeal last week's verdict.

The company announced about a month ago that it accepted a roughly $2.1 billion offer to sell its blood-glucose monitoring equipment business, LifeScan, to private-equity firm Platinum Equity.

J&J also recently got an offer from Fortive Corp. to buy Advanced Sterilization Products for $2.7 billion. Johnson & Johnson said at the time it had four months to decide to take the industrial equipment maker up on its offer.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 17, 2018 08:15 ET (12:15 GMT)

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