Shares in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) fell this week after the company missed the consensus top-line forecasts but pulled off earnings beats for both the 4th quarter and 2016.
Pharmaceutical sales grew 6.5% for the full-year to $33.5 billion, with an operational increase of 7.4%. Domestic sales climbed nearly 10% and international sales increased 1.8%.
New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J reported profits of $3.81 billion, or $1.38 per share, on sales of $18.11 billion for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, 2016, representing a bottom-line gain 18.6% on sales growth of 1.7% compared with Q4 2015. Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were $1.58, 2¢ ahead of the Wall Street consensus estimate; analysts there were looking for sales of $18.28 billion.
Full-year profits grew 7.3% to $16.54 billion, or $5.93 per share, on sales growth of 2.6% to $71.89 billion. Adjusted EPS came in at $6.73, again 2¢ ahead of The Street, but J&J missed the consensus sales number of $72.03 billion.
JNJ shares were trading at $112.44 per share in mid-afternoon activity, down -0.3%.
Today, after weeks of exclusive negotiations, J&J said that it plans to buy Swiss biotech firm Actelion (VTX:ATLN) for $30 billion in an all-cash deal. The companies have reportedly been in talks for months – Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) was also involved in discussions for Actelion, but was sidelined after J&J entered into exclusive negotiations with Actelion last month.
The companies plan to spin off Actelion’s research and development pipeline into a new company, led by Actelion CEO Jean-Paul Clozel.
J&J offered to pay $280 per share and the deal was approved unanimously by both boards of directors. The offer is a premium on Actelion’s closing price of 227.4 Swiss francs on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
