07/14/2009：GS/JNJ Premarket ER

07/14/2009：GS/JNJ Premarket ER

Goldman profit up 33 pct on strong trading gains

* TARP repayment brings $426 million charge

* Shares fall slightly in premarket trading

By Steve Eder

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) reported an 33 percent rise in quarterly earnings on Tuesday as a strong gain in trading was offset by a one-time charge to repay government loans.

Wall Street's largest surviving investment bank reported net income for common shareholders of $2.7 billion, or $4.93 a share, compared with $2.05 billion, or $4.58 a share, in the closest year-earlier quarter.

Analysts polled by Reuters Estimates forecast, on average, $3.49 a share, while those surveyed by First Call predicted earnings per share of $3.54. It was not immediately clear if the estimates were comparable to the reported figure. The results came in above analysts' consensus forecast.

Goldman shares fell less than 1 percent in electronic premarket trading.

Goldman, the first major U.S. bank to report second-quarter earnings, saw its performance bolstered by improving markets and strong trading results, as well as an upswing in advisory fees.

Gains were tempered by a one-time $426 million charge related to the repayment of $10 billion in loans from the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP. (Reporting by Steve Eder and Elinor Comlay; editing by John Wallace)


J&J profit falls but beats forecasts

* J&J EPS $1.15/shr, above $1.11/shr forecast

* Revenues of $15.24 billion top forecast by $190 mln

* Shares up 1 pct in premarket (Adds details on earnings, analyst comments)

By Ransdell Pierson and Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) second-quarter earnings fell almost 5 percent, but profit and revenue beat analyst forecasts helped by surprisingly resilient pharmaceutical and consumer product sales.

Sales took a hit from patent expirations on its drugs for schizophrenia and epilepsy, but sales of its arthritis drug Remicade were better than expected.

"They went through a cost-cutting exercise about a year and a half ago, and it's definitely helping them with their earnings to date," said Jan Wald, an analyst with Noble Financial Group. "The surprise is more on the revenue side ... and that bodes well."

The diversified healthcare company, whose products range from Band-Aids to arthritis treatment Remicade, earned $3.21 billion, or $1.15 per share. That compared with $3.37 billion, or $1.18 per share, in the year-earlier period.

Analysts on average expected $1.11 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

J&J's quarterly revenue fell 7.4 percent to $15.24 billion, but was $190 million higher than the Reuters Estimates forecast.

Sales would have been 6 percentage points higher if not for the stronger dollar, which hurts the value of overseas sales.

The company reaffirmed its full-year profit forecast of $4.45 to $4.55 per share, which excludes special items.

Sales of prescription drugs fell 13.3 percent to $5.5 billion, as patients opted for cheaper generic forms of J&J's Risperdal schizophrenia treatment and Topamax, an epilepsy pill that lost U.S. patent protection in recent months.

Topamax sales plunged 73 percent to $182 million, while Risperdal fell 66 percent to $239 million.

Even so, analysts said they had been girding for an even bigger decline in the pharmaceuticals business, amid the erosion of Risperdal and Topamax sales.

"The pharmaceutical business looked especially strong to us," Noble's Wald said. He pointed to arthritis drug Remicade, whose quarterly sales jumped 24 percent to $1.1 billion. Declines for Procrit and Eprex -- anemia drugs strapped with safety concerns, were not as bad as feared, he said.

Global sales of consumer products fell 4.5 percent to $3.85 billion, while sales of medical devices and diagnostics slipped 3.1 percent to $5.89 billion. Growing demand for the company's surgical products and orthopedics products was partly offset by lower sales of stents, tiny devices used to prop open coronary arteries that have been cleared of plaque.

"Consumer sales were strong as well, which is promising because that's the closest thing to the general public that Johnson & Johnson has so that might say something about the economy," Wald said. J&J shares rose 63 cents to $58.35 in premarket trading. (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Derek Caney)