In This Article:
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) topped fourth-quarter earnings estimates, reporting nearly $21.4 billion in quarterly revenue. Yahoo Finance Health Reporter Anjalee Khemlani monitors how influential J&J's medical device segment and sales was to pushing profits higher, as well as the impact of recent reports of a settlement over Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder lawsuits.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: Top trending ticker on "Yahoo Finance" and that is Johnson and Johnson. Now, shares on the move after the company reported fourth quarter results. Also, released its first full-year results since its separation of Kenvue. You're looking at gains of just about 4/10 of a percent ahead of the open.
Now, Kenvue, which is formerly known as Johnson&Johnson's consumer health business. "Yahoo Finance's" Anjalee Khemlani here with some of her biggest takeaways. And Anja, you take a look at the Street's reaction, it looks like they're pretty pleased with these results.
ANJALEE KHELMANI: Yeah. I would say, pleased, lukewarm a little bit. You're not seeing a big jump despite that big jump in the medtech results. And that is where I'd like to start to focus. That was a really big takeaway from the earnings today because that has been generally an area in the industry broadly that has been under pressure and been pretty slow growth. But Johnson&Johnson coming out with a beat on that. So that's something to watch.
Then there's also the broader pharma play. Stelara, one of their top drugs, is part of that IRA negotiation with Medicare that's coming up this year. And so that's something to watch even as competition is building up for that drug specifically. They're looking to next year, where competition will come into play with biosimilars. And so broadly speaking, the story for Johnson&Johnson is that this move to separate from Kenvue is really going to need some proof in the pudding, if you will, for long-term growth.
Meanwhile, also looking at a deal they struck for the talc powder legal case settling for $700 million across the board with all the states. And that's something that has been confirmed today with a report from "The Wall Street Journal." Bloomberg had initially reported it as a tentative deal. So all things told, Johnson&Johnson is setting the tone for, at least, an upbeat year. They do have a lot of cash on hand for potential deals. They've already done a couple of small acquisitions to help boost and contributed to this full-year report. So all eyes are on whether or not this company leverages its strong position to do more deals for the year. And boost its pipeline as it faces-- like every other major pharma cap-- large cap-- the loss of exclusivity.
BRAD SMITH: All right. And earnings call that began at 8:30 AM Eastern time. We're sure they're probably in that Q&A part at this point. Anjalee, thanks so much for breaking it down. Appreciate it.