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J&J posts healthy 2Q
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July 18, 2000: 10:49 a.m. ET
Drug sales boost Johnson & Johnson earnings 14% to 94 cents per share
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Johnson & Johnson posted Tuesday second-quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates; results the health care products company attributed to strong drug sales.
For the three months ended June 30, J&J (JNJ: Research, Estimates) earned $1.33 billion, or 94 cents per share, up 14 percent from the year-ago earnings of $1.16 billion, or 82 cents per diluted share.
The No. 2 U.S. drug maker cited sales of such products as anemia treatment Procrit.
Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call predicted the company to earn 92 cents a share.
 Sales for the New Brunswick, N.J.-based company jumped 7.7 percent to $7.5 billion.
"While the strength of the dollar adversely affected our reported sales, I am extremely pleased at our double-digit worldwide operational growth," said Ralph S. Larsen, J&J chairman and CEO. "An area of notable strength is our pharmaceutical business where we experienced particularly robust growth."
International sales in local currency rose 7.5 percent, but were offset by a negative currency impact of 5.6 percent. Worldwide pharmaceutical sales rose 13.9 percent to $3.2 billion.
 Corey Davis, pharmaceutical analyst at Chase H&Q, told CNNfn, he was not expecting a strong performance from J&J, but a 2 cent outperform sends a message to Wall Street that J&J is for real.
"Through some good cost cutting and expense management they were able to beat the bottom line," Davis said.
But Davis warned that while J&J's fundamentals are outstanding, drug companies are big targets in an election year. (510K WAV or 510K AIFF)
J&J stock rose 19/32 to 94-15/16 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. 
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Johnson & Johnson
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