Johnson & Johnson's fourth-quarter drug sales rise 5.3 percent, led by Stelara, Imbruvica, Darzalex

Headline results for the fourth quarter:

Note: All changes are versus the prior-year period unless otherwise stated

What the company said:

CEO Alex Gorsky suggested that the results "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."

Other results:

• US pharmaceutical revenue: $5.9 billion, up 2.8 percent
• International pharmaceutical revenue: $4.3 billion, up 8.9 percent
• Stelara: $1.4 billion, up 33.6 percent, driven by strong uptake in Crohn's Disease
• Remicade: $1.2 billion, down 15.6 percent, due to increased discounts/rebates and biosimilar competition
• Zytiga: $786 million, up 4.1 percent, with strong sales and share growth in the EU partially offset by the impact of generic competition in the US
• Invega Sustenna/Xeplion/Trinza/Trevicta: $763 million, up 10.1 percent
• Imbruvica: $703 million, up 34.7 percent, mainly due to increased patient uptake globally
• Pulmonary hypertension products (Opsumit, Tracleer and Uptravi): $667 million, up 9.3 percent
• Xarelto: $608 million, down 14.4 percent, hit by higher discounts and rebates, as well as higher Medicare donut hole utilisation
• Darzalex: $584 million, up 57.4 percent, lifted by strong market growth and share gain in the US and EU, as well as growth in Japan and Latin America
• Prezista/Prezcobix/Rezolsta/Symtuza: $495 million, up 5.3 percent
• Simponi/Simponi Aria: $482 million, down 1.6 percent

What analysts said:

Credit Suisse analyst Vamil Divan noted that Johnson & Johnson's quarterly profit was boosted by from an effective tax rate of 2.6 percent, amounting to just $80 million. Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan analyst Chris Schott said the positive outlook for the company's pharmaceutical division was tempered by ongoing growth challenges to its medical device unit and ongoing litigation, which saw legal costs double to $1.3 billion.

Looking ahead:

Johnson & Johnson expects sales of between $80.4 billion and $81.2 billion this year, versus $81.6 billion in 2018. Meanwhile, earnings per share are forecast to be in the range of $8.50 to $8.65, reflecting growth of between 5.7 percent and 7.6 percent. Analysts predict full-year sales in 2019 of around $82.3 billion, on earnings of $8.60 per share.

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