Johnson & Johnson is sliding after guidance comes up short

AP

• Johnson & Johnson beat on both the top and bottom lines.
• But its 2019 full-year guidance fell short of Wall Street expectations.
• Shares were sliding early Tuesday.
• Watch Johnson & Johnson trade live.

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday reported better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter. But shares were sliding, down 1.39%, as the company's 2019 full-year guidance fell short of Wall Street expectations.

The pharmaceutical giant reported adjusted earnings of $1.97 a share in the fourth quarter - $0.02 higher than what analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting. Its quarterly sales totaled $20.4 billion, edging out the $20.2 billion estimate. The company said it generated full-year adjusted earnings of $8.18 a share on revenue of $81.6 billion.

"Johnson & Johnson delivered another year of strong operational sales growth of 6.3% and achieved our 35th consecutive year of adjusted operational earnings growth at 9.8% in 2018," said CEO Alex Gorsky in a press release.

"This can be attributed to accelerated underlying sales performance across each of our businesses, where we also leveraged our scale across the enterprise to improve margins."

Looking ahead, the company sees full-year 2019 sales in the range of $80.4 billion to $81.2 billion. Meanwhile, it expects its 2019 adjusted earnings to be $8.50 to $8.65 a share. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting $8.61.

Johnson & Johnson was down 12% in the past year.

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