Johnson & Johnson Surpassed Expectations in the Q4

Johnson & Johnson ( J&J) is a world-famous company the develops various products. This week more precisely on Tuesday the New Jersey-based company reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations. The revenue in the fourth quarter reached $22.48 billion. 

Interestingly J&J also said it would release key details regarding its coronavirus vaccine in the nearest future.

The company’s share price was essentially flat in premarket trading following the report. 

Let’s have a look at the results. Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical business generated $12.26 billion in revenue, a 16% year-over-year increase as demand rose for its prescription drugs. As a reminder, this unit of the company is working on a coronavirus vaccine. 

Interestingly, the company’s consumer unit and makes products such as Listerine generated $3.6 billion in revenue, up 1.4% from a year earlier. It is worth noting that, the medical device unit of the company generated $6.58 billion, a 0.7% decrease. 

Importantly, J&J forecasted an adjusted profit for 2021 of $9.40 to $9.60 per share and sales ranging from $90.5 billion to $91.7 billion.

Johnson & Johnson and coronavirus vaccine

As mentioned above, the company is working on the coronavirus vaccine. J&J is expected to release the information about its phase three trial testing of the vaccine as early as this week. 

It is worth mentioning that, authorities, as well as Wall Street, are eagerly anticipating the federal authorization of J&J’s vaccine. Based on the preliminary information, the authorization could happen as early as the next month. 

People should take into account that, the vaccine developed by J&J requires only one dose. As a reminder, in the case of the vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, healthcare providers must administer two doses about three to four weeks apart and this factor complicates the situation. 

Hopefully, the company expects the phase three trial data to be robust. Hopefully, Johnson & Johnson as well as other companies are working hard to create an effective vaccine. 

Moreover, Moderna is working on a booster shot to protect against the strain found in South Africa. The company decided to create a booster after Moderna found that its current vaccine appeared less effective. This way the company wants to tackle the strain found in South Africa. 

Importantly, the vaccine developed by the company is a huge step forward, as thanks to this vaccine healthcare providers will save time and money.