BRIEF—J&J's quarter tops estimates

Presenting its latest quarterly results, US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson posted adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.90 on sales of $19.7 billion, where Wall Street analysts had predicted EPS of $1.80 and revenue of $19.3 billion.

The sales figure was a 10.3% increase on the total from the same period in 2016, while specifically in Pharmaceuticals, the revenue of $9.7 billion represented an increase of 15.4% versus the third quarter of last year, with an operational increase of 14.6% and a positive impact from currency of 0.8%.

The company increased its sales guidance for full-year 2017 to a range of $76.1 billion to $76.5 billion from the previous $75.8bn to $76.1bn.

Adjusted earnings guidance for the year has been increased from $7.12 to $7.22, to $7.25 to $7.30 per share.