It was another one of those quarters for Johnson & Johnson
Changes in currency contributed 4.7% of that growth, and when you add Pfizer's
Still, that's not too bad, considering that sales of two major brands, Procrit and Cypher, were both down more than 30% versus the year-ago quarter. Procrit and Amgen's
Compared with the third quarter, Johnson & Johnson was able to slightly increase Cypher's share of the stent market against Boston Scientific
Excluding special items like the previously announced charge for Natrecor, fourth-quarter earnings per share were $0.88, bringing the full-year non-GAAP EPS to $4.15. While it's not likely that the dollar will drop forever, shareholders can revel in J&J's year-over-year EPS growth of 10.4% in 2007 -- at least for now.
Johnson & Johnson expects 2008 earnings per share, excluding special items, to grow 6% to 7% over last year. That's not multibagger growth, but in this market, that might be enough to make it one of the best stocks of 2008.