Markets & Finance

Johnson and Johnson reported Q2 2026 worldwide sales of $25.31 billion, up 6.6% year-over-year, with adjusted EPS of $2.90 beating consensus estimates by roughly five cents. The Innovative Medicine segment drove results, growing 6.8% operationally to $16.4 billion, led by DARZALEX at 18.9% growth and CARVYKTI at 49.4%, which more than offset a 55.7% decline in STELARA due to biosimilar competition. The company raised its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance midpoint to $11.68 and now projects reported sales of $100.8 billion to $101.4 billion, which would mark the first time in its 140-year history that annual revenue exceeds $100 billion.

A consortium of Stripe, Advent International, and Block submitted an all-cash offer on July 15, 2026 to take PayPal private at $60.50 per share, a 28 percent premium to its prior closing price, backed by roughly $17 billion in equity and $50 billion in committed bank debt. PayPal's board, advised by Goldman Sachs and Evercore, is scheduled to meet as early as the week of July 20 to consider the proposal, while no regulatory filings have yet appeared on EDGAR, indicating the deal remains in a pre-announcement review stage. The roughly $5 gap between the offer price and PayPal's post-announcement close of $55.41 signals that markets are not yet pricing the transaction as a certainty, and prominent shareholder Michael Burry has publicly argued the bid undervalues the company by nearly half.