Johnson & Johnson's second-quarter earnings were met with a shrug on Wall Street, but one of the drugmaker's top executives insists the most powerful growth drivers are just starting to pick up speed.

J&J on Wednesday reported adjusted earnings of $2.90 a share, beating the $2.85 a share analysts had anticipated. The company logged $25 billion in sales, in line with Wall Street estimates and up 6% from the same period last year. Quarterly growth spanned both its pharmaceutical and medical device divisions.

"I think the second quarter was just an affirmation of the first quarter, " Chief Financial Officer Joe Wolk said in an interview with Barron's. "Our pharmaceutical unit continues to thrive, surpassing $16 billion in sales for the first time ever in the company's history."

The company boosted its full-year outlook on the heels of its latest results. J&J now sees adjusted earnings of $11.60 to $11.75 a share, up from the range of $11.45 to $11.65 provided in April. Full-year sales are forecast to land between $100.8 billion and $101.4 billion, compared with $100.3 billion to $101.3 billion previously.

Heading into the earnings report, Wells Fargo analyst Lawrence Biegelsen hadn't anticipated a significant lift to J&J's full-year sales and earnings guidance. Biegelsen pointed out that before the latest results, the company had only raised its sales guidance during a second-quarter report once in the last four years.

Shares slid 2.3% on Wednesday as the S&P 500 ticked slightly higher. Heading into the session, J&J had gained nearly 23% in 2026, outpacing the benchmark index, which advanced 10% over the same period.

Investors may be reacting to earnings that largely met, but didn't crush, expectations. For instance, while sales for J&J's MedTech business grew 4.5% to $8.9 billion, the figure fell just a hair short of the $9 billion Wall Street expected.

Impella sales fell 2% within the division, a sharp contrast to the 14% growth seen in the first quarter. J&J added the heart-pump technology to its portfolio through the acquisition of Abiomed in late 2022, anticipating it would become a major growth engine.

That upward trajectory stalled earlier this year after a prominent U.K. study questioned the device's use during certain high-risk, non-emergency coronary procedures.

Wolk doesn't dispute the findings. "The study in the U.K. -- where Impella isn't widely utilized -- was conducted by credible cardiologists, " he said. "We just believe there is alternative data that counters what they are claiming."

J&J says it expects the product line to return to growth as it releases new data supporting Impella's efficacy. For now, as Wednesday's stock reaction indicates, the study remains a drag on the company.

Other areas fared better in J&J's latest quarter, namely its oncology portfolio. Sales grew 6.8% within the company's Innovative Medicine segment, primarily driven by cancer drugs like Darzalex, Carvykti, and Tecvayli. Psoriasis drug Tremfya was also a standout as sales jumped nearly 73% to $2 billion, topping analysts' targets.

That strength was partially offset by declining sales of Tremfya's successor, Stelara, amounting to an impact of roughly 760 basis points. Although Stelara's key patents began expiring in 2023, J&J negotiated deals to keep cheaper biosimilars off the market until 2025. Since those competitors launched, Stelara's sales have steadily declined.

Still, the second-quarter results are the latest sign that the company is successfully navigating this headwind. J.P. Morgan analyst Chris Schott noted ahead of the report that J&J was moving beyond Stelara's loss of exclusivity, describing the company as "one of the cleaner names" in its peer group.

Wolk himself conceded that Stelara's loss of exclusivity wasn't a thing of the past "mathematically," considering it continues to weigh on financial results.

However, J&J's current portfolio of revenue-generating products "will carry us into the next decade," he said. "And the good news is we've got a number of new things that are coming, I would say, that will fortify the next decade."

Chief among those catalysts are the debut of a surgical robot to rival products from Intuitive Surgical and the expanding market footprint of Icotyde, a daily pill approved in mid-March. J&J aired its first wave of commercials for Icotyde during Tuesday night's World Cup broadcast, backing the recent launch with significant marketing muscle.

"While it's not disclosed, we're extremely thrilled with the launch of Icotyde for the first 90 days," Wolk told Barron's. "There has been tremendous uptake. It's exceeding almost any product launch that we've seen in recent memory."

Icotyde blocks the inflammatory pathway that causes psoriasis. It provides an alternative to injectable biologics, which face pushback from patients due to a fear of needles or their reputation as a more "serious" type of therapy, Wolk explained.

"It's a competitive space, but it's a novel therapy," he said. "This really provides them a nice option. And the fact that it's across a spectrum of prescribers tells you that this is a very comfortable, once-a-day pill that people are much more open to receiving treatment on."

The financial chief conceded that J&J's latest quarter wasn't "perfect" due to the Impella shortfall.

"But we've got 28 platforms that generate more than $1 billion in revenue, and we're adding to that stable in the coming years," Wolk continued. "This gives us the flexibility not just to meet expectations, but to beat them and raise the financial outlook for the balance of this year."

Due to its massive scale, J&J is widely considered a bellwether for the broader healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. As the first major industry player to report this quarter, its results will be followed by Abbott Laboratories on Thursday, with Novartis and AbbVie reporting in the coming weeks.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 15, 2026 14:08 ET (18:08 GMT)

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