Johnson & Johnson lifts 2017 profit forecast; second-quarter earnings beat Street

[July 18, 2017]  (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday raised its full-year profit forecast and reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by strong demand for its newer products.

The diversified healthcare company, which completed its $30 billion acquisition of Swiss biotech Actelion last month, raised its 2017 profit forecast range to $7.12 to $7.22 per share, from $7.00 to $7.15.

"We are optimistic that the investments we are making will accelerate our sales growth in the second half of this year," Chief Executive Alex Gorsky said in a statement.

J&J is banking on newer pharmaceutical products to reaccelerate its growth, to counter slowing demand for some of its key products, including its top-selling Remicade treatment.

Sales of Remicade, which is used to treat various autoimmune disorders, fell 14 percent to $1.53 billion in the second quarter, hurt by competition.

However, excluding special items, the Band-Aid maker earned $1.83 per share, beating analysts' estimates by 3 cents, helped partly by strong demand for its cancer drugs, Darzalex and Imbruvica.

J&J is the first among major pharmaceutical companies to report its quarterly results, and the report comes a day after a second Republican effort to pass healthcare legislation in the Senate collapsed.

A Johnson & Johnson building is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

While sales in J&J's consumer and medical device divisions rose despite a negative currency impact, demand for pharmaceutical products - its largest business - fell marginally to $8.6 billion.

J&J reported total sales of $18.84 billion, missing the average analyst estimate of $18.95 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

J&J also raised the low end of its full-year revenue forecast range to $75.8 billion from $75.4 billion. It, however, kept the top end of the range unchanged at $76.1 billion.

The company's net earnings fell to $3.83 billion, or $1.40 per share, from about $4 billion, or $1.43 per share.

J&J's shares were up about 1 percent at $133.60 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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