Johnson & Johnson cuts outlook on strong dollar even as sales rise to $24bn in latest quarter

In the latest reported quarter, sales at the company's medical devices unit fell 1.1% to $6.9bn, hurt by "Covid-19 related mobility restrictions in certain regions". J&J also reported $544m in sales from its Covid-19 vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson has cut its full-year adjusted profit and sales forecast due to a hit from a stronger dollar, even as the company's pharmaceuticals unit helped it beat second-quarter profit estimates.

J&J joins other major US multinationals, including Microsoft and IBM, in warning of a knock from the strength of the US currency. The dollar has soared 12% this year through July, and is expected to remain strong for at least the next three months, a Reuters poll of analysts showed. 

Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceuticals unit, its largest, has helped the company soften the blow from its pandemic-battered medical device business. A double-digit growth in sales of cancer drug Darzalex and Crohn's disease drug Stelara helped the company beat estimates for second-quarter profit.

Total sales rose about 3% to $24bn (€23.4bn), with nearly half of the sales coming from outside the US. 

The US multinational focuses on consumer medicines, making medical devices, and in diagnostics pharmaceuticals. In Ireland, it employs 2,850 people across those three divisions with a large concentration of people employed at its Janssen unit in Cork. 

In the latest reported quarter, sales at the company's medical devices unit fell 1.1% to $6.9bn, hurt by "Covid-19 related mobility restrictions in certain regions". J&J also reported $544m in sales from its Covid-19 vaccine.

The company suspended the sales forecast for its Covid-19 vaccine in April, due to weak demand for the shot in high-income countries as well as hesitancy in low-income nations. J&J now expects a full-year adjusted profit of $10.00 to $10.10 per share, from its prior forecast of $10.15 to $10.35.

The company's net earnings fell to $4.81bn, or $1.80 per share, in the second quarter, from $6.28bn, or $2.35 per share, a year earlier. 

Reuters