Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories, two health-care bellwethers who are helping lead the fight against coronavirus, say they have emerged from the worst of the pandemic even as it continues to rage.
Both companies beat analysts’ tepid expectations for the second quarter. J&J also raised its adjusted earnings forecast for the year and Abbott issued a forecast for 2020 after demurring three months ago. They each say the damage wrought by canceled surgeries early in the outbreak, which decimated sales of the medical devices, has begun to ease.
“We believe the second quarter for both J&J and Abbott will be the most negatively impacted by the coronavirus,” particularly as the number of medical procedures continue to increase throughout the year, said Ashtyn Evans, an analyst with Edward Jones.
Both companies sell a range of health-care products. Abbott was buoyed by its early effort to launch a handful of coronavirus tests in the spring, an initiative that brought in $615 million in sales in the quarter. Meanwhile, J&J’s pharmaceutical unit saw sales increase 2.1% from a year earlier to $10.75 billion. While more moderate than typical, but providing a cushion as sales from its medical-device and consumer-health units lagged.