Johnson & Johnson Lifts Forecast

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) came out with its earnings report this morning. Personally, I don’t worry so much about the details of JNJ’s earnings report. I’m more concerned with their earnings forecast. JNJ is such a solid blue-chip stock that they’re always going to come in pretty close to their forecast. If it’s up or down a few pennies per share, I don’t really much care.

Three months ago, JNJ lowered their 2010 full-year EPS guidance from $4.80 to $4.90 to a range of $4.65 to $4.75. The good news today is that they raised their full-year guidance to $4.70 to $4.80 thanks to favorable exchange rates. That’s it. I’m done. I have all I need to know.

If you’re interested in the details, however, I’ll mention that JNJ earned $1.23 per share which was eight cents higher than Wall Street’s consensus, and three cents higher than one year ago. Revenue came in at $15 billion which was below Wall Street’s forecast of $15.2 billion; and that’s probably why the stock is down today.

To recap, they beat by eight cents and raised full-year guidance, and the stock is down. This is why I don’t much worry about short-term market moves. When I own a stock I just want to know that everything is fine, and everything is fine at JNJ.

Update: The Wall Street Journal reports, “Johnson & Johnson Ekes Out Profit.” Just so we’re clear, by “eke” they mean “earned $3.42 billion.”

Posted by on October 19th, 2010 at 10:35 am


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