The gains were set off by the quarterly report from pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, which is one of the earlier companies to release during the slew of coming results. As a result, the company’s better-than-expected device sales are seen as a good sign for others in the industry. Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide medical-devices sales were $6.97 billion, up 6% from a year earlier and above the consensus analyst estimate of $6.66 billion.
“We believe JNJ’s MedTech results are a positive indicator and expect most of our companies under coverage to beat consensus estimates in 1Q22,” Needham & Co. analyst Mike Matson wrote in a note.