Johnson & Johnson Delivers Another Earnings Beat

Johnson & Johnson JNJ delivered better than expected results for the third quarter, as earnings and revenue came in above the Street estimates.

The company earned a profit of $4.3 billion, or $1.53, up from $3.36 billion, or $1.20 a share, in the year-ago quarter. On an adjusted basis, it would have earned $4.7 billion or $1.68 a share representing a year-over-year growth of 12.2 and 12.8 percent respectively. Analysts estimated the company to earn $1.65 a share.

Johnson & Johnson net sales grew 4.2 percent to $17.8 billion and came in above the Street predictions of $17.74 billion. While domestic sales advanced 6.7 percent, global sales grew 1.5 percent to reflect an operational growth of 1.7 percent with currency's 0.2 percent unfavorable impact.

Chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky commented, "With a number of regulatory approvals, several new drug application submissions and new breakthrough therapy designations from the FDA, we are increasingly confident in our pipeline expectation of filing 10 new pharmaceutical products between 2015 and 2019, each with revenue potential over $1 billion."

Moving ahead, the healthcare products producer reiterated its sales outlook of $71.5-$72.2 billion and adjusted EPS forecast of $6.68-$6.73 for the full year. Street is looking for an EPS of $6.69 on revenue of $72.16 billion.

The stock traded up by $1.10, or 0.93 percent, to $119.59 in pre-market trading.