Johnson & Johnson raises quarterly dividend by 6.3%

Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose 4.8% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the drug and consumer products company reported first-quarter profit and sales that rose above expectations and boosted its dividend, offsetting a downbeat full-year outlook.

Net income rose to $5.80 billion, or $2.17 a share, from $3.75 billion, or $1.39 a share, from a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share rose to $2.30 from $2.10, beating the FactSet consensus of $2.01.

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Revenue grew 3.3% to $20.69 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $19.73 billion, with all three business segments topping expectations.

Pharmaceutical sales rose 8.7% to $11.13 billion, medical device sales declined 8.2% to $5.93 billion and consumer health sales increased 9.2% to $3.63 billion.

For 2020, J&J lowered its adjusted EPS guidance range, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, to $7.50 to $7.90 from $8.95 to $9.10, which is below the FactSet consensus of $8.27, and cut its sales forecast to $77.5 billion to $80.5 billion from $85.4 billion to $86.2 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $81.1 billion.

Separately, J&J raised its quarterly dividend by 6.3% to $1.01 a share, with the new dividend payable June 9 to shareholders of record on May 26. The stock has lost 4.6% over the past three months through Monday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 19.2%.