Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) beat Wall Street estimates for earnings in the fiscal third quarter despite a slight miss on the sales front. Shares of the company were up 1.0% in premarket trading on raised full-year guidance.
Highlights from CFO Wolk’s interview with CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’
On CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, CFO Joseph Wolk blamed “timing” for lower-than-expected sales from pharmaceuticals and medical devices unit in Q3. He said:
We experienced fluctuations in elective procedures with the Delta variant. Hospital staffing was also somewhat constrained that served to further reduce volume of elective procedures in Q3. We see those procedures coming back in the fourth quarter or early next year.
Wolk also expects the staffing shortage to improve in Q4. Last week, the advisory panel of the U.S. FDA voted in favour of Johnson & Johnson’s booster for people aged 18 and older after at least 2 months of the initial dose.
Q3 financial performance
Johnson & Johnson reported $2.60 of adjusted per-share earnings in the third quarter on $23.34 billion in revenue. According to Refinitiv, experts had forecast $2.35 of adjusted EPS but a slightly higher $23.72 billion in revenue.
JNJ’s COVID-19 vaccine contributed $502 million to the total revenue in the recent quarter. Sales from its consumer, pharmaceutical, and medical devices segments were up 5.3%, 13.8%, and 8.0%, respectively, as per the earnings press release.
Full-year guidance
For the full year, Johnson & Johnson now forecasts up to $9.82 of per-share earnings on $94.1 billion to $94.6 billion in sales. It maintained its guidance for COVID-19 vaccine sales at $2.5 billion this year.
Earlier this year in August, JNJ discontinued the HIV vaccine trial on insufficient efficacy.
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