Johnson & Johnson increased sales by 3.6% in its Jacksonville-based vision products business in the first quarter, and the medical products giant expects stronger growth the rest of the year.
Tim Schmid, worldwide chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s MedTech division, said in an April 14 conference call that Vision sales tend to be slower early in the year and then accelerate.
“We’ve seen that over the last couple and certainly, 2025 was no exception. Keep in mind that Q1 is typically our lowest quarter, and we’re confident that we will see acceleration through the remainder of the year,” Schmid said, according to a company transcript of the call.
Johnson & Johnson Vision produces contact lenses at its headquarters facility in Jacksonville and makes surgical vision products at other facilities. The company is seeking incentives to expand its facilities in Jacksonville.
The contact lens business accounts for a majority of sales, $969 million of Vision’s total of $1.37 billion in the first quarter.
However, surgical products grew faster at 6%, compared with 2.7% for contact lenses.
“We continue to see strong global momentum in premium IOLs (intraocular lenses) led by TECNIS Odyssey and PureSee where we’re outpacing the market globally, and this premium segment remains a key driver of value and differentiation,” Schmid said.
But he also said surgical vision growth “was offset in the U.S. due to competitive pressures as new entrants came into the market.”
Schmid said sales at the contact lens side of the business were driven by its ACUVUE OASYS 1-day brands.
New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson’s total sales rose 6.4% to $24.1 billion in the first quarter but adjusted earnings fell by 7 cents a share to $2.70.
A federal judge in California issued a preliminary injunction April 17 to prevent the integration of Tegna Inc.’s television stations into Nexstar Media Group Inc. while an antitrust lawsuit against their merger proceeds.
Nexstar completed its acquisition March 19 of Tegna, which owned 64 U.S. television stations including Jacksonville NBC affiliate WTLV-12 and ABC affiliate WJXX TV-25.
U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley issued the injunction in a lawsuit filed by satellite television service DirecTV in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento on March 18 before the merger was completed.
Attorneys general in eight states also filed suit seeking to block the deal, which gives Nexstar 259 stations, as anticompetitive.
“DirecTV and Plaintiff States assert Nexstar’s merger with Tegna will drive up the cost of television service to tens of millions of Americans, shutter local newsrooms around the country, substantially reduce competition in dozens of local markets, and reduce the quality of news, thereby harming distributors like DirecTV and consumers,” Nunley’s order said.
The judge issued a temporary restraining order March 27 to stop the integration of the stations’ operations before issuing the injunction.
“This transaction closed more than four weeks ago following receipt of all required regulatory approvals from the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice,” Irving, Texas-based Nexstar said in a news release after the injunction.
“This pro-competitive transaction will make local stations stronger and support continued investment in local journalism and fact-based news. We will appeal today’s decision and look forward to presenting our case on its merits before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” it said.
The injunction said “Nexstar must permit Tegna to continue operating as a separate and distinct, independently managed business unit from Nexstar, and Nexstar must put measures in place to maintain Tegna as an ongoing, economically viable, and active competitor” while the case proceeds.
Immediately after Nexstar closed the deal with Tegna in March, WTLV and WJXX began displaying a “Nexstar Media Group Inc.” logo at the end of their newscasts.
However, that logo was not displayed on their newscasts this past weekend.
Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc., or RYAM, said it was reviewing strategic alternatives that could include a sale of the company, an announcement that would normally be expected to lift the stock price.
Instead, RYAM fell as much as $2.06 to $8.15 in the early minutes after the market opened April 20 and closed at $9.09, down $1.12 for the day.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Matthew McKellar, who maintains a “buy” rating on the Jacksonville-based producer of cellulose specialties products, said in a research note before the market opened that he anticipated a different market response.
“We expect a somewhat positive reaction in RYAM shares after it announced a review of strategic alternatives, despite the simultaneous and unexpected departure of Scott Sutton, who joined the company in January 2026, adding some uncertainty,” he said.
RYAM did say Sutton had resigned after only three months as CEO and would be replaced on an interim basis by an office of the chief executive officer, comprising four experienced company executives.
McKellar said that should provide continuity for RYAM as it searches for a permanent CEO.
RYAM’s stock jumped higher in February after American Industrial Partners disclosed it made an offer to buy the company at $11 or $12 per share, twice its trading price of $5.52 at the time of the offer.
Besides the company’s acknowledgment of “unsolicited indications of interest,” McKellar also said a repricing strategy for its cellulose specialties products and RYAM’s leading market position “makes it an intriguing asset.”
McKellar has a target price of $14 for the stock.
Ascendiant Capital Markets analyst Edward Woo increased his 12-month price target for Jacksonville-based Duos Technologies Group Inc. from $14 to $17, about double the stock’s recent trading price.
Woo, who maintains a “buy” rating on the stock, said in a research note the increase is based on a net present value analysis of the company.
“This represents significant upside from the current share price and we believe appropriately balances out the high risks with large upside opportunities,” he said.
Duos’ stock was trading at $8.40 at the time of Woo’s April 16 report.
Solar power manufacturer JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. reported 2025 revenue dropped 29% to $9.37 billion, with an adjusted net loss of $448.6 million.
China-based JinkoSolar has one U.S. plant in Jacksonville that opened in 2018 at AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center on Jacksonville’s Westside and has more than 700 employees, according to the company’s website.
CEO Xiande Li said in an April 16 news release the Jacksonville facility “maintained high utilization rates as we further strengthened local manufacturing and service capabilities there.”
However, he said industry conditions led to a 2025 net loss for the company.
“The global photovoltaic industry continued to experience volatility due to structural imbalances and a shifting trade environment, which negatively impacted financials across the industrial chain. Facing persistently low module prices, the elimination of obsolete production capacity, and a still-evolving product mix, we incurred a net loss for the full year,” he said.
Li remains optimistic about growing demand for solar energy.
“Looking forward to the medium to long term, as the construction of new power systems advances and new load demand grows from data centers, application scenarios for solar and storage systems will continue to broaden,” he said.
In a March research report, Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Dennis lp upgraded his rating on JinkoSolar from “sell” to “buy,” due in part to expectations that electric carmaker Tesla will have to pay patent fees to the company as it expands its solar capacity.
“We believe JinkoSolar will be a key beneficiary of Tesla’s solar capacity expansion, and that its ADR (American Depository Receipt) shares are currently undervalued,” he said.
Electric commercial vehicle maker Cenntro Inc., which shut down its Jacksonville operations in 2024, reported a net loss for 2025 and a decline in sales.
The Iselin, New Jersey-based company had an operating loss of $32 million as revenue dropped 42% to $18.1 million, according to its annual report filed April 15.
The report said the revenue decrease was due in large part to the suspension of government subsidies, resulting in a decline in the average selling price of its vehicles.
Cenntro announced plans in 2021 to open its first U.S. plant in Jacksonville for production of its commercial electronic vehicles.
It opened a 100,000-square-foot plant at 2240 Lane Ave. N. in the Lane Industrial Park on the Westside in 2023, and also opened a showroom for its vehicles at 11840 Beach Blvd. on the Southside.
However, eviction lawsuits were filed for both sites in 2024 and Cenntro said it was winding down its Jacksonville operations, without giving a reason.
The annual report said Cenntro currently has manufacturing facilities in New Jersey and California and two others in China.
Cenntro announced April 9 it was enacting a 1-for-60 reverse split of its stock to lift its share price above $1 to maintain its Nasdaq listing.
The reverse split reduced its shares outstanding from 87.9 million to about 1.5 million.
After the reverse split, the stock opened at $4.39 on April 13.