The health care giant reports that profits fell about 8 percent thanks to its reorganization, which involves eliminating more than 4,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its global workforce. So at the end of the day, the company earned $2.55 billion, or 88 cents per share, compared with a profit of $2.76 billion, or 94 cents per share during the same period a year earlier. Revenue hit nearly $15 billion, up from $13.2 billion. Here’s the J&J statement.

The falling profits - and cutbacks - are due to declining sales of stents and the Procrit anemia drug, which has been tagged with safety warnings by the FDA. To cover the cost of the reorg, J&J took a $528 million charge. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 99 cents per share on revenue of $14.84 billion, the Associated Press reports.

By segment, sales growth was modest. Global pharma sales were $6.1 billion, an increase over the prior year of 3.7 percent. Worldwide medical devices and diagnostics sales were up 6 percent to $5.2 billion. The Cordis stent biz, for instance, fell 23 percent; this includes a 44 percent decline in sales of the Cypher stent, which has similarly suffered safety concerns. The global consumer healthcare biz rose 47.5 percent to $3.6 billion, but on a pro forma basis (or backing out the Pfizer business) worldwide sales for the consumer segment increased 3.5 percent on an operational basis.

There’s a teleconference under way this morning for Wall Street analysts. If there are any significant developments, we will convey them shortly. Meanwhile, J&J execs increased earnings guidance for the between $4.10 and $4.13 per share from between $4.02 to $4.07 per share. The guidance excludes restructuring charges and special items.

[UPDATE: Here's one troubling sign for J&J. Invega, a follow-up to the Risperdal antipsychotic that faces generic competition fairly soon, isn't doing as well as hoped. “We’ve taken a realistic view of Invega this year,” Dominic Caruso, J&J’s cfo, told analysts. “It’s not tracking today where we’d hope it would be tracking by this point.]”