Johnson & Johnson posts $10.7B fourth-quarter loss

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson posted a rare quarterly loss, a whopping $10.71 billion, due to a $13.6 billion charge related to the recent U.S. tax overhaul.

The health care giant on Tuesday also reported sharply higher spending on production, marketing, administration and research, offsetting a big jump in sales.

The $13.6 billion charge is for a tax payment on years of accumulated foreign earnings, now being brought back to the U.S., that amount to more than $66 billion, Chief Financial Officer Dominic Caruso said in an interview. About $18 billion of that was held in cash and was taxed at 15 percent, while the remainder was taxed at a low 8 percent rate.

The maker of biotech drugs and Band-Aids said the fourth-quarter loss amounts to $3.99 per share. A year earlier, the New Brunswick, New Jersey, company had a net profit of $3.8 billion, or $1.38 per share.

Excluding the tax charge and other one-time gains and costs, earnings came to $4.78 billion, $1.74 per share. That beat Wall Street projections by 2 cents, according to a survey of industry analyst by Zacks Investment Research.

The world’s biggest maker of health care products posted revenue of $20.2 billion, a hair below Street forecasts for $20.22 billion.

Sales of prescription drugs, J&J’s largest business, jumped 17.6 percent to $9.68 billion, led by newer products including cancer drugs Darzalex and Imbruvica and recently approved Tremfya for plaque psoriasis.

Sales of Tylenol, Neutrogena skin care and other consumer health products rose 3.1 percent to $3.54 billion, while sales of medical devices climbed 11.5 percent to $6.97 billion.

Johnson & Johnson said it expects full-year earnings in the range of $8 to $8.20 per share, with revenue in the range of $80.6 billion to $81.4 billion.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose slightly before the opening bell Tuesday.