Johnson & Johnson sets up strong profits and revenue in 4Q

A huge jump in prescription drug sales, especially abroad, helped Johnson & Johnson turn to a big fourth quarterly result after spending a big loss a year ago, when it took a $ 13.6 billion toll on end of 2017 US tax overhaul.

The world's largest producer of health products has also had an effective tax rate of 2.6 percent for the last quarter, which accounts for only $ 80 million. That was the main reason why J&J topped Wall Street profit expectations, Credit Suisse analyst Vamil Divan wrote to investors.

The company also reported lower expenditure on research and development, restructuring and interest expenses.

In premarket trading, J & J shares fell $ 1.99, or 1.5 percent, to $ 128.70.

The creator of baby shampoo and biotechnology on Tuesday reported net revenue of $ 3.04 billion, or $ 1.12 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2018. A year earlier, J & J reported a rare net loss – $ 10.71 billion, or $ 3.00 per share. It was due to the $ 13.6 billion fee, for a year's tax payment of accumulated foreign earnings of more than $ 66 billion, brought back to the US at low rates.

Earnings in the last quarter, adjusted for one- Previous gains and costs came to $ 1.97 per share, or 2 cents better than industry analysts, according to a study by Zacks Investment Research.

New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company, said revenue totaled $ 20.39 billion, and also outperformed expectations, although it was only 1 percent higher than the 2017 fourth quarter.

As usual, J & J's prescription medicine business ran strong, with sales of 5.3 percent to $ 10.19 billion. Sales of cancer drugs, including Darzalex, Imbruviga and Zytiga, jumped 22 percent to a total of $ 2.49 billion, and sales of Remicade, Simponi and Stelara for rheumatoid arthritis and other immune disorders increased by 8.3 percent to a total of $ 3.34 billion.

Johnson & Johnson's consumer healthcare business was flat $ 3.54 billion, while the medical device and diagnostics industry, which the company has been revolutionizing for some years, increased by 4.4 percent to $ 6.67 billion.

For all 2018, Johnson & Johnson reported revenue of $ 81.58 billion, an increase of 6.7 percent and a net income of $ 15.3 billion, or $ 5.61 per share.

Johnson and Johnson expect an all-year revenue between $ 8.50 and $ 8.65 per share, with revenues between $ 80.4 billion and $ 81.2 billion. Industry analysts have estimated earnings per share of $ 8.60 and revenues of around $ 82.6 billion.

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Follow Linda A. Johnson at https://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma

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Portions of this story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) at using data from Zacks Investment Research.