A jump in prescription drug sales and a sharply reduced tax bill boosted Johnson & Johnson's third-quarter sales and profit, which beat Wall Street expectations.
The world's biggest maker of health care products on Tuesday also slightly raised its profit forecast for the year.
The New Brunswick, N.J., maker of baby products, biotech drugs and medical devices reported net income of $3.93 billion, or $1.44 per share. That was up 4.5 percent from net income of $3.76 billion, or $1.37 per share, a year earlier.
Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $2.05 per share, or 2 cents better than expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.
Revenue was $20.35 billion, up 3.6 percent, which also exceeded analyst forecasts for $19.91 billion.
J&J's prescription drug business posted sales of $10.35 billion, up 6.7 percent, mainly due to higher sales of its cancer drugs, including Darzalex, Imbruvica and Zytiga.
Sales of consumer health products such as Tylenol and Band-Aids edged up 1.8 percent to $3.42 billion, while the medical devices and diagnostics business, which is being restructured, reported a 0.2 percent sales dip to $6.59 billion.
U.S. and international sales both rose about 3.5 percent, to $10.66 billion and $9.68 billion, respectively. J&J noted that unfavorable currency exchange rates reduced revenue by 1.9 percent.
J&J's effective tax rate plunged to 11.1 percent, barely half the 21.4 percent rate in the year-ago quarter.
"We are pleased with our strong third-quarter performance, which reflects continued above-market growth in our pharmaceutical business, accelerating sales momentum in our consumer business and consistent progress in our medical devices business," J&J CEO Alex Gorsky said in a statement.
The company said it now expects full-year earnings in the range of $8.13 to $8.18 per share, with revenue in the range of $81 billion to $81.4 billion. In July, J&J forecast 2018 earnings per share of $8.07 to $8.18 and revenue of $80.5 billion to $81.3 billion.
Shares, which are down 4 percent this year, rose slightly before the opening bell Tuesday.
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Follow Linda A. Johnson at https://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma
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Portions of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on JNJ at https://www.zacks.com/ap/JNJ
