BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Johnson & Johnson reported higher third-quarter earnings early Tuesday, boosted in part by a favorable foreign-exchange rate and solid sales growth for its consumer products.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the health-care conglomerate reported net income of $3.31 billion, or $1.17 a share, compared with $2.55 billion, or 88 cents a share, for the same quarter in 2007. Last year's quarter included an after-tax charge of $528 million for restructuring.
Excluding various charges, J&J would have posted adjusted earnings of $1.17 a share versus $1.06 a share.
Revenue for the world's largest health-care company rose 6.4% to $15.9 billion. The positive impact of currency was 3.1%.
According to FactSet Research, J&J was expected to report earnings of $1.11 a share on revenue of $15.71 billion.
J&J also raised its 2008 earnings forecast. The company now sees adjusted earnings of $4.50 to $4.53 a share.
"Johnson & Johnson continues to achieve solid earnings results despite the impact that generic products have had on our pharmaceutical business," said William Weldon, J&J's chief executive officer. "Of note was the strong sales performance of our consumer segment and the solid sales results in our medical devices and diagnostics segment."
Sales of prescription drugs were largely flat at $6.1 billion. Excluding the impact of foreign currency rates, sales of prescription medications actually fell 2.5% operationally from last year's quarter. Some of that decline was attributable to the recent loss of patent protection for one of its top-selling products, the antipsychotic medication Risperdal.
Medical-device sales, however, fared far better, up 8.8% to $5.7 billion, with the currency exchange rate contributing about 3%.
Consumer-products sales jumped 13% to $4.1 billion, bolstered by strong growth of such popular brands as Neutrogena, Listerine and Aveeno. A favorable foreign currency rate contributed almost 4%.
In a recent note from Deutsche Bank, analysts said they saw sales of prescription drugs sliding 0.5% to about $6.1 billion, medical devices increasing 8.5% to $5.7 billion and consumer products jumping 8.8% to $3.9 billion.
