Investing.com – Johnson & Johnson stock (NYSE:JNJ) rose 1% in Tuesday’s premarket as the company nudged up its annual profit forecast while keeping its outlook for Covid vaccine sales for the year unchanged.
The company now sees its annual adjusted earnings to be around $9.79 per share, up some 1.4% from a prior estimate of $9.65 at center of the guidance range.
J&J in July said it expects to produce between 500 million and 600 million doses of its one-shot vaccine this year, pretty much half of its previous target of making a billion. Production and quality issues at a manufacturing site set the company back in rolling out its Covid vaccines faster.
The forecast revision follows third-quarter results that saw the consumer and pharmaceutical giant beat estimates for profit but fall short on sales.
Sales in the pharmaceuticals business, which contribute more than half of the company’s revenue, rose the most, by 14% on an adjusted basis. Medications against cancer, hypertension, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, psoriatic arthritis and plaque psoriasis were in demand.
Sales in the consumer health business grew 5.7%. Over-the-counter products like Tylenol and another analgesic Motrin as well as Aveeno skin and beauty care products all gained.
General surgery, surgical vision products and contact lenses in vision and hip and knee implants took sales of medical devices higher by 7.6% as people tended to ailments they had kept in abeyance during the pandemic.
Sales in the third quarter grew by some 11% both on a reported and adjusted basis. Adjusted earnings per share rose 18% to $2.60.