3 Things You Won't Learn by Focusing on Johnson & Johnson's Headline Figures in Its Q3 Report

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) often kicks things off for the healthcare sector with the release of its quarterly earnings, and once again, the largest healthcare company by market cap surpassed Wall Street's loftiest expectations.

For the quarter, J&J, as it's more commonly known, generated $19.65 billion in sales, a 10.3% increase from the prior-year period.  J&J was obviously aided by its acquisition of Actelion, whose specialty lung disease drugs tacked on approximately $670 million in sales during the third quarter. Overall, pharmaceutical growth, sans currency fluctuations, came in at 14.6% during the third quarter, with operating growth of 1.6% for consumer health products and 6.6% for medical devices. It should be noted that the acquisition of Abbott Medical Optics accounted for 5.2% of the 6.6% increase in medical devices, meaning organic growth was a bit tamer. Nonetheless, J&J topped Wall Street's sales expectations by more than $300 million.

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Source: Fool.com