J&J jumps as earnings exceed forecasts, but pharma sales drop

US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was 1.3% up at $133.91 on Tuesday lunchtime after investors reacted positively to the presentation of its 2nd-qtr results, although sales in its pharma segment were in fact down on a year ago.

Sales across the group were $18.8 billion for the quarter which, although a significant rise, missed the average analyst estimate of $18.95 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Excluding after-tax intangible amortization expense and special items, adjusted net earnings for the current quarter were $5 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $1.83, representing increases of 3.1% and 5.2%, respectively, as compared to the same period in 2016.