GE HealthCare reported better-than-expected first-quarter results on Wednesday, but the company slashed its annual forecast to account for the impact of President Donald Trump‘s far-reaching “reciprocal” tariff policy.
Shares of GE HealthCare were up 3% on Wednesday.
Here’s how the company did:
Earnings per share: $1.01 adjusted vs. 91 cents expected by LSEG.
Revenue: $4.78 billion vs. $4.66 billion expected by LSEG.
Revenue increased 3% year over year from $4.65 billion. GE HealthCare reported net income of $564 million, or $1.23 per share, up from $374 million, or 81 cents per share, during the same period last year.
GE HealthCare’s adjusted EPS figure is a result of adds like nonoperating benefit costs, restructuring costs and investment valuations, among other things.
For its full year, GE HealthCare said it expects to report adjusted earnings in the range of $3.90 to $4.10 per share, which is a decline of 13% to 9% from its guide last quarter. The company said the range includes roughly 85 cents per share of tariff impact.
“Regarding the current global trade environment, we are actively driving mitigation actions,” GE HealthCare CEO Peter Arduini said in a statement. “We continue to see strong customer demand in many of the markets we serve and are well-positioned to drive long-term value as we invest in future innovation.”
GE HealthCare’s stock over a one month period.
GE HealthCare sells a range of medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics, imaging solutions, artificial intelligence tools and data analytics solutions. The company manufactures its products in 20 countries and serves customers in more than 160 nations around the globe, according to its website.
On April 2, Trump introduced his tariff policy, which initially established a 10% baseline levy on almost every country, though many nations such as China, Vietnam and Taiwan were subject to much steeper rates. Days later, Trump dropped those steeper rates to 10% for 90 days to allow trade negotiations with those countries.
China remains a notable exception, as Trump has imposed cumulative tariffs of 145% on Chinese goods this year. This brings the total tariffs on some products from China to as high as 245%, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.
GE HealthCare has a substantial presence in China, and Arduini told investors Wednesday that the company has “conservatively assumed” that the bilateral U.S. and China tariffs will account for 75% of its total net tariff impact.
The company announced in February that Johnson & Johnson veteran Will Song will lead its China business as CEO starting in July.
The Pfizer logo is seen outside the pharmaceutical company’s manufacturing plant, in Newbridge, Ireland February 10, 2025.
Clodagh Kilcoyne | Reuters
Pfizer on Tuesday expanded its cost-cutting efforts and reported first-quarter profit that topped estimates, even as the company’s sales fell, largely due to dwindling revenue for its antiviral Covid pill Paxlovid.
The company previously said its cost-cutting program would deliver overall net cost savings of roughly $4.5 billion by the end of 2025. On Tuesday, Pfizer said it now expects additional savings of roughly $1.2 billion, primarily in selling, informational and administrative expenses, by the end of 2027.
The company said that will be driven in large part by “enhanced digital enablement,” including automation and artificial intelligence and streamlining business processes.
The expanded cuts also include expected research and development reorganization cost savings of around $500 million by the end of 2026, the company added. Those savings will be reinvested into Pfizer’s product pipeline.
Pfizer has a separate multiyear initiative to slash costs, with the first phase of the effort slated to deliver $1.5 billion in savings by the end of 2027. With the added cuts announced Tuesday, Pfizer now expects to deliver around $7.7 billion in savings by the end of that year from the two cost-cutting efforts.
The cuts aim to help the pharmaceutical giant recover from the rapid decline of its Covid business and stock price over the last few years, and appear to be paying off.
Here’s what the company reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Earnings per share: 92 cents adjusted vs. 66 cents expected
Revenue: $13.72 billion vs. $13.91 billion expected
‘Volatile external environment’
The results come as drugmakers brace for President Donald Trump‘s planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. – his administration’s bid to boost U.S. manufacturing of medications.
Unlike other companies grappling with evolving trade policy, Pfizer did not revise its outlook.
The company maintained its full-year 2025 outlook, forecasting sales of $61 billion to $64 billion, with a similar performance from its Covid products as seen in 2024, however Pfizer noted in its earnings release that the guidance “does not currently include any potential impact related to future tariffs and trade policy changes, which we are unable to predict at this time.”
But on the earnings call on Tuesday, Pfizer executives said the guidance does reflect $150 million in costs from Trump’s existing tariffs.
“Included in our guidance that we didn’t really speak about is there are some tariffs in place today,” Pfizer CFO Dave Denton said on the call.
“We are contemplating that within our guidance range and we continue to again trend to the top end of our guidance range even with those costs to be incurred this year,” he said.
On the call, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company established a team to analyze a range of potential outcomes and develop strategies to help mitigate the potential impact of tariffs on its business in the short and long term. That team is managing current inventory levels in certain jurisdictions and leveraging Pfizer’s domestic manufacturing footprint, among other efforts.
“Should we be impacted by further tariffs in the future, we will assess the impact of the policies enacted and provide information at the appropriate time,” Bourla said.
He added that uncertainty around Trump’s pharmaceutical tariffs is deterring the company from further investing in U.S. manufacturing and research and development.
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Pfizer still expects that changes to the Medicare program resulting from the Inflation Reduction Act will hurt sales by $1 billion, dampening growth by approximately 1.6% compared with 2024.
Stripping out one-time items, the company expects 2025 earnings to be in the range of $2.80 to $3 a share.
“With the underlying strength of our business, we believe we can be agile in navigating an uncertain and volatile external environment,” Bourla said in a release.
For the first quarter, the company booked net income of $2.97 billion, or 52 cents per share. That compares with net income of $3.12 billion, or 55 cents per share, during the same period a year ago.
Excluding certain items, including restructuring charges and costs associated with intangible assets, the company posted earnings per share of 92 cents for the quarter.
Pfizer reported revenue of $13.72 billion for the first quarter, down 8% from the same period a year ago.
Covid sales
The company said the decrease in sales was primarily driven by a decline in revenue for Paxlovid, which posted $491 million in sales during the first quarter, down 76% from the same period a year ago, in part due to lower Covid infections worldwide and reduced international government purchases of the drug.
The drop in sales also reflects a boost Pfizer got in the first quarter of 2024 from a final adjustment related to a previously recorded revenue reversal for Paxlovid.
Analysts had expected Paxlovid to generate $769.7 million in sales for the first quarter, according to StreetAccount estimates.
Meanwhile, the company’s Covid shot, Comirnaty, booked $565 million in revenue, up 60% from the same period a year ago. That’s above the $352 million that analysts were expecting, according to StreetAccount.
The results come as shot makers like Pfizer face uncertainty over immunization policy and regulation under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic who now oversees the nation’s federal health agencies.
As secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has pursued a sweeping overhaul of different agencies, cutting staff, consolidating or eliminating offices and taking actions that could ultimately undermine vaccines.
Comcast on Thursday outlined changes to its broadband strategy as the business continues to shed customers in the face of heightened competition.
The discussion came amid the company’s first-quarter earnings call with investors. Despite the customers losses, Comcast’s earnings surpassed analysts’ expectations.
Comcast shares closed down nearly 4% Thursday.
Here is how Comcast performed for the period ended March 31, compared with estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:
Earnings per share: $1.09 adjusted vs. 98 cents expected
Revenue: $29.89 billion vs. $29.77 billion expected
While domestic broadband revenue was up 1.7% to $6.56 billion, Comcast lost 199,000 total domestic broadband customers, reflecting the continued pressure on the cable giant’s cornerstone business. Competition has ramped up in recent years due to the rise of alternative home internet options, including 5G, or so-called fixed wireless.
“In this intensely competitive environment we are not winning the marketplace in a way that is commensurate with the strengths of our network and connectivity,” said Comcast President Mike Cavanagh on the company’s earnings call.
Analysts peppered Comcast executives with questions on Thursday regarding its Xfinity-branded broadband and mobile, and how the company will pivot the business.
Cavanagh said that the company had identified a “disconnect” that’s translated to slowed growth despite a strong broadband network and related products. He noted the two primary headwinds are “price transparency and predictability and the level of ease of doing business with us.”
During last quarter’s earnings call, Comcast executives alerted investors that they would shift the company’s focus to growing its mobile business following continued losses in broadband.
Comcast’s less-than-10-years-old mobile business remained a bright spot during the quarter. Revenue for the unit was up roughly 16% to $1.12 billion, and it added 323,000 lines. There are now roughly 8.15 million total Xfinity Mobile lines.
On Thursday, CEO Brian Roberts said the company is “clearly facing some challenges, but as you’ve heard, with a lot of passion.”
“The team has a sense of urgency, energy and focus to getting customer pain points resolved,” Roberts said. “While this may take a little time to fully take hold, our history of operational execution success would tell you that while sometimes we may not move first, once we get in motion we do it extremely well.”
‘Elevated competition’
Igor Golovniov | Lightrocket | Getty Images
On Thursday, Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong said the company is “in an incredibly strong position to successfully execute on tough decisions we’re making in the face of elevated competition in certain areas.”
Broadband bloomed as a growth engine for cable companies like Comcast as the cable TV business began its decline. Comcast on Thursday reported 427,000 cable TV customer losses during the first quarter.
Following years of consistent broadband customer growth, especially during the early Covid pandemic lockdown orders when many Americans used home internet for work and school, the green shoots of competing offerings began to take hold.
The key competitive force has been the rise of fixed wireless offerings from Verizon and T-Mobile. There’s been the so-called overbuilding of fiber internet, as well as 5G, a fixed wireless high-speed internet offering.
In 2022, Comcast and Charter Communications each reported their first quarterly losses in broadband customer growth.
Last September, Charter unveiled a strategy shift, which centered around new pricing, internet speeds, a push to grow mobile and making customer service changes. CEO Chris Winfrey told CNBC the goal was to remove the longtime negative perception around cable companies.
When Comcast noted the need to shift strategy earlier this year, executives said they would follow Charter’s lead in these areas. Comcast recently started to introduce changes to its mobile plans and pricing, and made a new hire.
Comcast Cable President Dave Watson on Thursday said new offers — such as adding a mobile line for free for one year — that were introduced toward the end of the first quarter have already shown benefits.
“It resulted in a great quarter to start with. We’re rolling here, and we expect continued acceleration in coming quarters,” he said.
Watson also noted upgrades to services for existing customers as “a core piece of our strategy is innovation.”
Despite the lack of growth, revenue for the broadband unit is consistently up due to strength in average revenue per user, or ARPU in industry jargon. Analysts questioned if that would take a hit with the strategy shift.
“What we’re trying to do is really focus on the pain points in this market,” Watson said. “We can execute this tactically, surgically and do not view it as a broad repricing of our base. We think we can still drive healthy broadband ARPU growth, but these initiatives will require some investment, which in turn will impact our ability to grow EBITDA in the near future. But we view the impact as very manageable.”
Bigger picture
Guests ride the Stardust Racers rollercoaster in the Celestial Park area, at the Epic Universe theme park in Orlando, Florida, US, on Saturday, April 5, 2025. Epic Universe, the $7 billion attraction from Comcast Corp.’s Universal Destinations & Experiences division, offers five distinct lands and opens to the public on May 22.
Bloomberg | Getty Images
For the first quarter, Comcast’s net income was down 12.5% to $3.38 billion, or 89 cents a share, compared with $3.86 billion, or 97 cents per share during the same period a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items including income tax expenses and costs related to the value of assets, among other items, Comcast reported earnings per share of $1.09.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, were up nearly 2% to $9.53 billion.
The company’s revenue was down slightly to $29.89 billion compared with $30.06 billion in the same period in 2024.
Revenue was helped by what Comcast refers to as its “growth businesses,” including mobile, streaming platform Peacock, the business services unit, residential broadband, studios and theme parks. Comcast is in the process of spinning out its portfolio of cable networks, including CNBC, in a transaction that’s expected to be completed this year.
Revenue for the media segment, which includes NBCUniversal, was up about 1% to $6.44 billion, and revenue in the film studios unit rose 3% to $2.83 billion.
The media unit got a boost from Peacock, with adjusted EBITDA for the segment up 21% to $1 billion driven by the streaming platform. Revenue for Peacock itself was up 16%. The streamer’s quarterly loss narrowed to $215 million, compared with a loss of $639 million in the same quarter a year prior.
Peacock had 41 million paid subscribers, beating analyst estimates of 37.21 million for the quarter, according to StreetAccount.Peacock ended last fiscal year with 36 million paid customers.
Competitors including Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have each seen their streaming platforms reach profitability in recent quarters. Streamers have shifted gears to focusing on ad-supported business models and cracking down on password sharing in a bid to reach profitability as Wall Street investors shifted focus to the metric rather than subscriber additions.
NBCUniversal’s theme parks revenue was down 5% to roughly $1.88 billion – driven by lower guest attendance during a quarter plagued by the Los Angeles wildfires– weighing down the overall business.
The company is gearing up for the debut of Universal Epic Universe on May 22, which will be the first major theme park development in Florida in 25 years. In Thursday’s release, Comcast called the new theme park its “most ambitious parks experience ever created,” with more than 50 attractions.
In August it will also open Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas. NBCUniversal also recently announced plans to build a Universal Theme Park and Resort in the U.K.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
Merck on Thursday lowered its full-year profit guidance, citing $200 million in estimated costs for tariffs and a charge tied to a recent deal.
The company now expects its 2025 adjusted earnings to come in between $8.82 and $8.97, down slightly from a previous outlook of $8.88 to $9.03 per share.
The company said the expected tariff charge primarily reflects levies between the U.S. and China, and Canada and Mexico to a lesser degree. Merck has built a robust presence in China, which is considered one of the company’s most important markets and is home to some of its partners and manufacturing and research and development sites.
Merck noted that the new outlook does not account for President Donald Trump‘s planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S., which are prompting some drugmakers to bolster their U.S. manufacturing footprints.
That includes Merck, which has invested $12 billion in U.S. manufacturing and research and development and expects to put more than $9 billion more into the country by the end of 2028.
On an earnings call on Thursday, Merck CEO Rob Davis said that “as you look at 2025, we’re well positioned with inventory to be able to mitigate anything we could see in the short term.” He added that in the medium to long term, “we’ve already started to identify where we can either reposition our own manufacturing,” which could look like changing the priorities of existing plants, or bring on external manufacturing to “bridge gaps” and build internal production further.
“In many ways, we are aligned with what the administration is wanting to do, and feel that we’re in position to be able to do that quite effectively,” he said.
The new guidance does include a one-time charge of roughly 6 cents per share related to the company’s license agreement with Hengrui Pharma, which it announced in March.
Merck reiterated its full-year sales forecast of between $64.1 billion and $65.6 billion.
Also on Thursday, the drugmaker reported first-quarter revenue and profit that beat expectations, as it said it saw strength in its oncology portfolio and animal health products.
Merck also cited “increasingly meaningful” sales contributions from two recently launched drugs. They are Winrevair, which is used to treat a rare, deadly lung condition, and Capvaxive, a vaccine designed to protect adults from a bacteria known as pneumococcus that can cause serious illnesses and lung infection.
Sales of those drugs will likely be critical to Merck’s efforts to offset losses from its top-selling cancer therapy Keytruda, which will lose exclusivity in 2028.
Here’s what Merck reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Earnings per share: $2.22 adjusted vs. $2.14 expected
Revenue: $15.53 billion vs. $15.31 billion expected
The company posted net income of $5.08 billion, or $2.01 per share, for the quarter. That compares with net income of $4.76 billion, or $1.87 per share, during the year-earlier period.
Excluding acquisition and restructuring costs, Merck earned $2.22 per share for the first quarter.
Merck raked in $15.53 billion in revenue for the quarter, down 2% from the same period a year ago.
Pharmaceutical, animal health sales
Merck’s pharmaceutical unit, which develops a wide range of drugs, booked $13.64 billion in revenue during the first quarter. That’s down 3% from the same period a year ago.
Keytruda recorded $7.21 billion in revenue during the quarter, up just 4% from the year-earlier period.
That increase was driven by higher uptake of Keytruda for earlier-stage cancers and strong demand for the drug for metastatic cancers, which spread to other parts of the body. Still, sales came under the $7.43 billion that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount estimates.
Notably, Merck continued to see trouble with China sales of Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents cancer from HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S.
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In February, Merck announced a decision to halt shipments of Gardasil into China beginning that month and going through at least mid-2025. Investors will likely be looking for updates on that effort during the earnings call on Thursday.
The Chinese market makes up the majority of the blockbuster shot’s international revenue. Merck is hoping that Gardasil’s expanded approval for men ages 9 to 26 in China will help boost uptake of the vaccine.
Gardasil raked in $1.33 billion in sales, down 41% from the first quarter of 2024 primarily due to lower demand in China. That’s below the $1.45 billion that analysts were expecting, according to StreetAccount estimates.
China has retaliated with tariffs of 125% on goods from the U.S. Some experts said China’s tariffs on U.S. products could lead to increased prices or limited supply of some popular Western medicines for Chinese patients, Reuters reported.
Merck’s animal health division, which develops vaccines and medicines for dogs, cats and cattle, posted nearly $1.59 billion in sales, up 5% from the same period a year ago. The company said higher demand for livestock products and sales from Elanco’s aqua business, which it acquired last year, drove that growth.
A Chipotle store stands in the Bronx on April 23, 2025 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
From Procter & Gamble to Chipotle, consumer companies are slashing their forecasts, projecting that tariffs will weigh on their profits and put more pressure on an already shaky consumer.
At least a dozen companies have cut or pulled their full-year outlooks so far this earnings season, with several more weeks of quarterly reports still on deck.
For many companies, tariffs mean higher prices on key commodities, like Peruvian avocados or saccharin to make toothpaste, which will eat into their earnings. But the uncertainty bred by the trade war is just as damaging to businesses’ bottom lines as consumers pull back their spending.
The cautious projections come in the middle of a 90-day pause of the higher rates under President Donald Trump‘s so-called reciprocal tariff plan. Until early July, most imports will face a duty of 10%, excluding goods from China — which are subject to 145% duties — along with aluminum, cars and other nonexempt items.
Still, the situation changes almost daily. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told investors in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday he expects “there will be a de-escalation” in Trump’s trade war with China in the “very near future.” The White House also said Wednesday that automakers could win exemptions for some tariffs.
Higher prices to fight lower profits
Packages of Cascade Platinum Plus dishwasher detergent are stacked at a Costco Wholesale store on March 11, 2025 in San Diego, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images
Under the tariffs in effect now, coffee, board games and aircraft are all more expensive for companies to make. Many executives will likely choose to raise prices to mitigate the dent to profit margins.
“Aircraft cost too much already. I don’t want to pay any more for aircraft,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said Thursday. “It doesn’t make sense. And certainly, we’re pulling guidance. Certainly, this is not something we would intend to absorb. And I’ll tell you, it’s not something that I would expect our customers to welcome. So we’ve got to work on this.”
Tariffs worldwide, including retaliatory ones and not just those in the U.S., will “really pressure” progress in improving the industry’s supply chain, Airbus Americas CEO Robin Hayes said at a Wings Club luncheon in New York on Thursday. The U.S. aerospace industry has a trade surplus, helping soften the country’s overall deficit.
Calls are growing among airlines and aerospace suppliers to reinstate the terms of a more than 45-year-old agreement that allows the industry to operate mostly duty-free. Other industries are also pushing for exemptions from tariffs.
But barring cuts in tariff rates or new carveouts for goods, travel isn’t the only sector that will see price hikes. P&G, Keurig Dr Pepper and Hasbro all said Thursday that they could raise prices in the near future to offset higher costs.
“There will likely be pricing [changes] — tariffs are inherently inflationary — but we’re also looking at sourcing options,” P&G CEO Jon Moeller said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Though it predicted costs to produce its coffee and sodas would rise, Keurig Dr Pepper did not lower its full-year forecast. The company posted strong earnings growth for the first quarter, bolstered by the sale of its minority stake in coconut water maker Vita Coco, giving the beverage giant the flexibility to reiterate its outlook.
A ‘nervous’ consumer
shopper scans coupons in a grocery store in Washington, D.C.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
The tariffs will take time to affect the prices on grocery store shelves and inside malls. But they’re already taking a toll on shoppers’ mentally.
Earlier this month, U.S. consumer sentiment tumbled to its second-lowest reading since 1952. Shoppers are already pulling back their spending as they fear accelerated inflation, job losses and a potential recession, companies said this week.
“The main driver, I would say, is a more nervous consumer reducing consumption in the short term, and the impact on the cost structure and our ability to deliver the earnings a lower growth rate,” P&G CFO Andre Schulten said on a call with media on Thursday, explaining the company’s reasoning for cutting its forecast.
P&G, which owns top household brands like Charmin and Tide, lowered its outlook for core earnings per share and revenue for the full fiscal year, which is in its final quarter. Its third-quarter sales fell short of Wall Street’s estimates.
“It’s not illogical to see the consumer adopt the ‘wait and see’ attitude, and we saw traffic down at retailers,” Schulten said.
PepsiCo, another grocery store staple, cited a “subdued” consumer — along with tariffs — as the reason it cut its forecast for full-year core constant currency earnings per share.
The anxious consumer is also weighing on Chipotle, the first of the major publicly traded restaurant companies to report its results.
The burrito chain lowered the top end of its outlook for full-year same-store sales growth. Executives said traffic started slowing in February as diners began worrying more about their finances. The trend has continued into April.
“We could see this in our visitation study, where saving money because of concerns around the economy was the overwhelming reason consumers were reducing the frequency of restaurant visits,” Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright told analysts on Wednesday.
For its part, Hasbro opted to reiterate its forecast, which gives a wide range of a $100 million to $300 million headwind to its business from tariffs. The toy company’s outlook assumes that the China tariffs could range from 50% to the current rate of 145%.
Executives also warned of potential job losses tied to the increased costs.
Airlines, too, are seeing weaker demand, particularly in their economy cabins. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC in an interview earlier this month that Trump’s tariff policy at the time was the “wrong approach” and that it was hurting both domestic economy-class demand and corporate travel because of the uncertainty.
FILE PHOTO: The Bristol Myers Squibb research and development center at Cambridge Crossing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Dec. 27, 2023.
Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Bristol Myers Squibb on Thursday beat first-quarter estimates and hiked its revenue and profit guidance for the year, as the drugmaker cuts costs.
The company now expects 2025 revenue to come in between $45.8 billion and $46.8 billion, up from a previous outlook of around $45.5 billion. Bristol Myers also projects full-year adjusted earnings of $6.70 to $7 per share, which compares with its prior forecast of $6.55 to $6.85 per share.
Notably, the company said its guidance revisions include the estimated impact of current tariffs on U.S. products shipped to China. China is a critical market for Bristol Myers. The company has previously outlined its “China 2030 Strategy,” which is a plan to bring more of its medicines to the nation to address unmet medical needs in areas like gastric cancer and include more Chinese patients in clinical trials.
But the new outlooks do not account for any of President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S., Bristol Myers said.
In an earnings call Thursday, Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Christopher Boerner said the company appreciated the Trump administration’s efforts to increase U.S. manufacturing, but noted that it “needs to be done in a very thoughtful and deliberate way” in the pharmaceutical sector.
He added that it is “simply too early to provide a lot more” on the company’s expectations for pharmaceutical-specific tariffs. Still, Bristol Myers is continuing “mitigation efforts” to reduce risks of any disruption to the supply chain and shortages, Boerner said.
“We have a tremendous amount of flexibility to be able to move our manufacturing around should any potential tariffs come up,” said the company’s CFO David Elkins on the call. He added that Bristol Myers has a broad global manufacturing network, which includes a significant presence in the U.S.
Bristol Myers said the outlook hike reflects strength in its portfolio of newer drug brands, and better-than-anticipated first-quarter sales from its legacy portfolio of older medications.
The results come as Bristol Myers moves to slash $2 billion in expenses by the end of 2027, which is on top of $1.5 billion in planned cost cuts by the end of this year.
It also comes just days after Bristol Myers’ recently approved schizophrenia drug, Cobenfy, disappointed in a large clinical trial, leading some Wall Street analysts to substantially lower their multibillion-dollar sales forecasts for the treatment.
The company is banking on Cobenfy and other so-called growth portfolio drugs to offset the loss in revenue from top-selling treatments slated to lose exclusivity on the market, including its blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis and cancer immunotherapy Opdivo.
Boerner said “there’s a lot of uncertainty, whether related to tariffs, a potential economic downturn or restructuring at the FDA and HHS.” He is referring to the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the Food and Drug Administration and other federal health agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services.
But the company remains confident in its ability “to deliver for our patients, employees and shareholders,” he said.
Here is what Bristol Myers reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Earnings per share: $1.80 adjusted vs. $1.49 expected
Revenue: $11.2 billion vs. $10.7 billion expected
Bristol Myers posted net income of $2.5 billion, or $1.20 per share, for the first quarter. That compares with a net loss of $11.9 billion, or a loss of $5.89 per share, for the year-earlier period.
Excluding certain items, it reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.80 for the quarter.
The pharmaceutical giant’s revenue fell 6% from the same period a year ago to $11.2 billion.
Eliquis booked $3.57 billion in sales for the quarter, down 4% from the year-ago period. That is above the $3.34 billion that analysts were expecting, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.
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The blood thinner, which Bristol Myers shares with Pfizer, is expected to lose market exclusivity by 2028.
Sales of Eliquis could also take a hit in 2026, when a new negotiated price for the drug goes into effect for certain Medicare patients following negotiations with the federal government. Those price talks are a key provision of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The second round of negotiations targets 15 additional drugs and will set new prices that will go into effect in 2028. That includes the Bristol Myers medicationPomalyst, which is used to treat a blood cancer called multiple myeloma and a different cancer that develops in people with HIV.
Pomalyst brought in $658 million for the period, down 24% from a year earlier. Revlimid, a drug used to treat adults with multiple myeloma, took in $936 million in sales for the first quarter, down 44% from the same period a year ago.
Revenue from the company’s so-called growth portfolio was $5.56 billion for the first quarter, up 16% from the year-earlier period.
Opdivo brought in $2.27 billion in revenue for the first quarter, rising 9% from the year-earlier period. That is above analysts’ estimate of $2.16 billion for the quarter, StreetAccount said.
Meanwhile, Cobenfy booked $27 million in sales for the first quarter.
Boeing is preparing to ask for Federal Aviation Administration approval to ramp up production of its bestselling 737 Max jets to 42 a month later this year, CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday, as airplane deliveries picked up this year and the company narrowed its losses.
Boeing reported a first-quarter net loss of $31 million, improvement from a loss of $355 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 18% to $19.5 billion, slightly ahead of analysts’ estimates.
The company’s cash burn of about $2.3 billion was an improvement over the nearly $4 billion it used in the first quarter of 2024, and was better than analysts expected. Ortberg told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that the company is on track to generate cash in the second half of the year.
Shares of Boeing gained about 6% in premarket trading.
The results include only the impact of global tariffs as of March 31, the company said. Executives will get questions on Wednesday’s 10:30 a.m. ET earnings call about tariffs as the manufacturer is currently caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s trade war, which is set to drive up prices of aircraft and imported parts and materials.
GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp said Tuesday that he’s met with Trump and suggested restoring duty-free trade for the aerospace industry, a major U.S. exporter that helps soften the United States’ trade deficit. GE, which makes aircraft engines, and RTX said they expect tariffs to cost more than $1 billion combined this year.
“While we are closely watching the developments in global trade, our strong start to the year combined with the demand for airplanes and our half trillion-dollar backlog for our products and services gives us the flexibility we need to navigate this environment,” Boeing CEO Ortberg said in a staff note Wednesday.
Here’s how Boeing performed compared with what Wall Street analysts surveyed by LSEG expected for the first quarter:
Loss per share: 49 cents adjusted vs. $1.29 loss expected
Revenue: $19.5 billion vs. $19.45 billion expected
On a per-share basis, the company reported a loss of 16 cents, compared with a loss of 56 cents during the same quarter a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items related to pensions costs and income taxes, among others, Boeing reported a loss of 49 cents per share.
Ortberg, who was hired last year and tasked with getting the manufacturer past a series of safety and manufacturing crises, outlined progress, including production rates of its best-selling 737 Max.
The CEO has in recent months touted improved safety and manufacturing processes at Boeing’s factories as he tries to guide the company past several accidents, including a door plug that blew out from a packed flight midair in January 2024 after the 737 Max left Boeing’s factory without key bolts installed. There were no fatalities or major injuries.
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Last week, Boeing released results of an employee survey that showed that only 27% would highly recommend working at Boeing and that 67% felt proud of working at Boeing, down from 91% in 2013. Less than half of employee respondents said they had confidence in senior leaders’ ability to “make decisions, communicate direction and respond to concerns raised by employees.”
Since the January 2024 accident, Boeing must receive approval from the FAA to increase production of the 737 Max to above 38 jets a month. Boeing had been producing significantly below that level after the accident and a nearly two-month union strike last year halted much of the company’s production.
Revenue in Boeing’s commercial airplane unit rose 75% during the first quarter from a year ago to $8.1 billion, with deliveries up to 130 planes from 83 a year ago.
“We are moving in the right direction and making progress as we reported our first-quarter 2025 results today,” Ortberg said in Wednesday’s staff memo. “From delivering more airplanes to scoring a transformational win for the fighter of the future, there is a lot of good work happening across our teams, and we are seeing positive results in the four key areas of our recovery plan that will position us for the rest of the year and beyond.”
Boeing has been refocusing its efforts on its core businesses. On Tuesday, it announced it would sell parts of its digital aviation businesses, including its Jeppesen navigation unit, to Thoma Bravo for $10.55 billion in an all-cash deal.
Revenue in its defense unit, which has been plagued with cost-overruns and quality issues, fell 9% during the first quarter to $6.3 billion, though the company recently scored a major win after Trump awarded Boeing a contract to build the U.S. Air Force’s all-new fighter jet, dubbed the F-47.
Greg Peters, Co-CEO of Netflix, speaks at a keynote on the future of entertainment at Mobile World Congress 2023.
Joan Cros | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Netflix executives messaged Thursday that all is well with the business in the face of economic turbulence. But its full-year outlook tells a slightly more nuanced story.
Netflix posted a big beat on operating margin for the first quarter, reporting 31.7% compared with the average estimate of 28.5%, according to StreetAccount. And it guided well above analyst estimates for the second quarter — 33.3% against an average estimate of 30%.
By its own phrasing, Netflix was “ahead” of its own guidance for the first quarter and is “tracking above the mid-point of our 2025 revenue guidance range.”
Still, Netflix declined to alter any of its longer-term projections. That suggests Netflix isn’t quite as confident in its second half.
“There’s been no material change to our overall business outlook since our last earnings report,” Netflix wrote in its quarterly note to shareholders.
U.S. consumer sentiment is at its second-lowest level since 1952 as President Donald Trump’s new tariff policies roil markets.
Co-CEO Greg Peters noted during the company’s earnings conference call that Netflix has, in the past, “been generally quite resilient” to economic slowdowns. Home entertainment provides a cheaper form of leisure than most other activities. A monthly Netflix subscription with ads costs $7.99.
But the question remains how — or whether — an economic slowdown would pinch Americans’ wallets and force higher churn among streaming subscriptions.
Netflix stopped reporting quarterly subscriber numbers this quarter, so the company will likely not detail if it sees a customer slowdown later this year beyond reporting its underlying revenue and profit.
First-quarter revenue of $10.5 billion was roughly in line with analyst expectations, while second-quarter guidance of $11 billion is slightly above.
“Retention, that’s stable and strong. We haven’t seen anything significant in plan mix or plan take rate,” said Peters. “Things generally look stable.”
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos attends Netflix’s FYSEE event for “Squid Game” at Raleigh Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles, June 12, 2022.
Charley Gallay | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Netflix posted a major earnings beat Thursday, as revenue grew 13% during the first quarter of 2025.
The streamer attributed its better-than-expected revenue to higher-than-forecast subscription and advertising dollars.
In late January, the company increased its pricing across the board, raising its standard plan to $17.99 a month, its ad-supported plan to $7.99, and its premium plan to $24.99.
The report marks the first time the streaming giant did not disclose quarterly subscriber data, as it shifts its strategy to focus on revenue and other financial metrics as performance indicators.
Netflix’s earnings also come as traditional media stocks have been slammed by a tumultuous market prompted by President Donald Trump’s trade policy.
Netflix, however, said it continues to forecast full-year revenue of between $43.5 billion and $44.5 billion.
“There’s been no material change to our overall business outlook,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
As investors worry about the potential impact of tariffs on consumer spending and confidence, Netflix’s co-CEO Greg Peters said on the company’s earnings call, “Based on what we are seeing by actually operating the business right now, there’s nothing really significant to note.”
“We also take some comfort that entertainment historically has been pretty resilient in tougher economic times. Netflix, specifically, also, has been generally quite resilient. We haven’t seen any major impacts during those tougher times, albeit over a much shorter history,” Peters said.
Netflix shares gained about 2% in extended trading Thursday.
Here’s how the company performed for the quarter ended March 31, compared with estimates compiled by LSEG:
Earnings per share: $6.61 vs. $5.71 expected
Revenue: $10.54 billion vs. $10.52 billion expected
Net income for the period was $2.89 billion, or $6.61 per share, up from $2.33 billion, or $5.28 per share, during the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue in the first quarter jumped nearly 13% year over year, reaching $10.54 billion.
Netflix has been leaning on advertising as it seeks to soften slowing subscriber growth. “A key focus in 2025 is enhancing our capabilities for advertisers,” it said.
The company launched its in-house ad tech platform in early April in the U.S., with plans to extend into other markets in the coming months.
“We believe our ad tech platform is foundational to our long term ads strategy,” the company said. “Over time, it will enable us to offer better measurement, enhanced targeting, innovative ad formats and expanded programmatic capabilities.”
American Express‘ affluent cardholders are showing few signs of curbing their spending, and younger customers drove growth in first-quarter transaction volumes, Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC.
Billed business on AmEx cards rose 6% in the period, or 7% when adjusted for the impact of the leap year, the company reported Thursday, which shows that the bump in spending late last year continued into 2025, according to Le Caillec.
Those trends have continued into April, the CFO said, despite sharp declines in stocks this month amid concerns that President Donald Trump’s tariff policies will cause a recession.
The dynamic, which helped AmEx top expectations for first-quarter profit, shows that the company’s wealthier customer base may help to insulate it from concerns about tariffs and stubborn inflation. On the other end of the credit spectrum, Synchrony Financial, which offers store cards for dozens of popular retailers, has warned of a spending slowdown.
“There’s a lot of stability and strength, despite the news and the environment,” Le Caillec said.
Growth at AmEx came from younger cardholders, with millennial and Gen Z members spending 14% more in the quarter. Gen X and Baby Boomer cardholders showed more caution, registering 5% and 1% increases, respectively.
Le Caillec said it’s difficult to discern whether cardholders were pulling forward purchases because of the looming tariffs, creating an artificial boost to purchase volumes, as JPMorgan executives said last week. But some small businesses may be doing so to build inventory because of concerns about the duties increasing costs, he added.
Airline slump
One category in particular gave Le Caillec confidence that the spending trends may be durable.
“Restaurant spend is up 8%,” the CFO said. “This is the ultimate discretionary expense, it’s not something you can bring forward, and so it’s really a good indicator of the strength of our cardmember base and the confidence they have.”
If there was a weak area besides the spending slowdown from older Americans, it was in airline transactions, according to the company’s earnings presentation. The category grew just 3%, or 4% when adjusted for the leap year, after climbing 13% in the fourth quarter.
But while airlines, retailers and other corporations have pulled their earnings guidance on tariff uncertainty, AmEx was holding firm.
It maintained its guidance for revenue growth of 8% to 10% and earnings of $15 to $15.50 per share this year, Le Caillec said.
In the company’s presentation, though, it added a new caveat to its guidance: “Subject to the Macroeconomic Environment.”
