After announcing plans a month earlier to invest an additional $1 billion in its Jacksonville-based contact lens business, Johnson & Johnson officials touted the sales growth of the division as it reported second-quarter earnings.
The New Jersey-based medical products giant reported second-quarter sales at Johnson & Johnson Vision rose 5.6% to $1.45 billion, with sales of contact lenses rising 6% to $1.02 billion.
Johnson & Johnson manufactures ACUVUE-brand contact lenses in Jacksonville and produces surgical vision products at other facilities.
“In Vision, we have a bold ambition to make vision possible for more than 40 million people each year,” CEO Joaquin Duato said in a July 15 conference call, according to a company transcript.
“Our ACUVUE portfolio delivered strong quarterly growth across all regions and as a part of our $55 billion U.S. commitment, we recently announced an investment of more than $1 billion to scale our U.S. vision manufacturing, packaging, and distribution capabilities as we expand capacity to meet growing demand for these products,” he said.
The company announced the investment June 15 to expand its manufacturing facility on Jacksonville’s Southside and construct a new distribution center that is expected to open in 2028.
Johnson & Johnson has about 3,500 employees in Jacksonville, where it has been making contact lenses since its 1981 acquisition of Frontier Contact Lenses.
Tim Schmid, chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s MedTech division, which includes the vision business, said the company is expecting stronger sales growth from the division.
“We do expect an acceleration of our performance in the second half (of 2026) driven by continued performance of our businesses in Vision, in Orthopedics and in Surgery,” he said in the conference call.
Johnson & Johnson reported total adjusted sales growth of 5.7% to $25.3 billion in the second quarter, with adjusted earnings rising by 13 cents to $2.90 per share.
Dream Finders expanding management team
Founder Patrick Zalupski maintains a tight grip on Dream Finders Homes Inc., controlling 65.3% of the stock voting rights of Jacksonville-based home building company.
But after becoming majority owner of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team last year, he is adding new high-level executives to his homebuilding team.
Dream Finders announced July 14 that Rick Beckwitt, former co-CEO of Lennar Corp., was appointed cochairman of Dream Finders along with CEO and cochairman Zalupski.
This follows the June 1 appointment of Clint Szubinski, former executive vice president and chief operating officer of Meritage Homes Corp., as COO of Dream Finders.
Beckwitt was an executive at D.R. Horton Inc. before joining Lennar, giving him experience with two of the largest U.S. homebuilding companies.
“Rick’s exceptional homebuilding leadership and strategic operating experience further strengthens our Board as we continue executing our long-term growth strategy,” Zalupski said in a news release.
“I have admired the Company’s asset-light business model, disciplined approach to growth and entrepreneurial culture. I welcome the opportunity to bring my industry experience to help guide the Company as it builds on its strong foundation and executes its next chapter of growth,” Beckwitt said in the release.
The hires come as Dream Finders has been pursuing a buyout of Beazer Homes USA Inc.
“We believe both gentlemen could be catalysts and advisors to help DFH’s current management gear up for the next leg of growth whether that comes from a successful bid for Beazer or an organic growth strategy,” Citizens JMP Securities analyst James McCanless said in a research note.
In addition to those two hires, Dream Finders announced July 17 it appointed Steve Fischer to its board of directors.
Fischer was an executive with Jacksonville-based EverBank before it was acquired by TIAA in 2018, and he became CEO of the institution renamed TIAA Bank the next year.
He remained CEO until the bank was sold to private investors in 2023 and reverted back to the EverBank name.
Fischer was appointed president of The Pitney Bowes Bank in February 2026.
The addition of Fischer and Beckwitt increases the size of the Dream Finders board from five to seven directors.
Dream Finders has been pursuing a buyout of Beazer since February but the Atlanta-based company has rejected its overtures so far.
McCanless said in his July 14 note he is cautious about Dream Finders’ stock as it seeks a deal with Beazer.
“We think there is a potential downside risk to DFH’s share price if and when a final deal with Beazer is announced,” he said.
“We also anticipate DFH’s 2Q26 EPS may come in below the consensus forecast when the company reports later this month, and as a result of these factors, we maintain our Market Perform rating,” he said.
American Industrial Partners still interested in RYAM
Although Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc., or RYAM, rejected its buyout offer last fall, American Industrial Partners remains interested in the Jacksonville-based company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
After RYAM announced in April it was exploring possible strategic alternatives, AIP “entered into a standard confidentiality agreement with the Issuer, which includes customary ‘standstill’ and other customary non-disclosure and non-use provisions,” AIP said in the July 15 filing.
However, AIP indicated it is not negotiating a deal with RYAM and is waiting to be “invited to further participate in the strategic review process.”
AIP disclosed in a February SEC filing that it expressed interest in RYAM in November 2025 but was rejected by the board of directors.
After the rejection, AIP began buying shares of RYAM between Dec. 22 and Feb. 20 and now owns about 5.04% of RYAM’s stock, according to the July 15 filing.
Sidoti & Co. analyst Daniel Harriman said in a July 20 research note that he views the filing “as a signal that AIP remains engaged” and that RYAM’s strategic review continues after it appointed a new CEO, Daniel Krawczyk, on June 22.
“We read the development as outcome neutral, indicative of a live process rather than a particular result,” Harriman said.
Harriman said another development affecting the maker of cellulose specialties products was a July 15 announcement by the U.S. Trade Representative of a 25% tariff on some imports from Brazil.
“As the sole remaining U.S. producer of high-purity dissolving pulp, RYAM could see incremental pricing support,” he said.
AIP said in its previous SEC filing that it was considering offering $11 or $12 a share to buy RYAM in November, about double the stock’s trading price at the time.
The disclosure sent the stock to a high of $11.85 in March but it has been trading near $8 recently.
Harriman has a price target of $15 for the stock.
Redwire expanding Alabama operations
Jacksonville-based Redwire Corp. announced July 20 it is expanding its Huntsville, Alabama, facilities.
The space technology company said it is adding 164,000 square feet to increase its manufacturing and engineering capacity, and said the expansion is expected to create about 150 jobs.
According to its annual report, Redwire operated from 23 locations in North America and five in Europe with a total of 910,000 square feet for all of its sites.
The company had 1,410 employees as of Dec. 31.
Redwire did not say in a news release how much space and how many employees it currently has in Huntsville, and the company did not respond to an emailed question seeking those details.
Redwire said it is receiving about $8.5 million in state and local incentives to support the project, which is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2027.
“Huntsville is one of the fastest growing technology hubs in the United States, uniquely positioned at the intersection of America’s space and defense industries, which makes it the ideal location to expand our capabilities and strengthen America’s industrial base,” CEO Peter Cannito said in a news release.
Redwire’s stock price has come back to Earth recently after rocketing higher in May, along with other space sector stocks, in anticipation of the initial public offering of Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.
SpaceX went public at $135 a share June 11 and reached as high as $225.64 in the early days of trading. However, it has dropped back below the IPO price to a low of $120.10 as of July 20.
Redwire’s stock nearly doubled in price from $13.91 before SpaceX filed for its IPO in May to high of $26.64 May 28, as anticipation of the IPO sent the entire industry higher.
But as SpaceX tumbled, so did the rest of the industry. Redwire’s stock fell as low as $8.06 July 17, its lowest price since February.
Company acquires CoventBridge’s insurance unit
Command Investigations, which provides investigative services to the insurance industry, said July 7 it acquired the insurance division of Jacksonville-based CoventBridge Integrity Systems.
CoventBridge provides investigative integrity services for government and healthcare organizations.
Lake Mary-based Command Investigations said CoventBridge’s insurance investigations business will be combined with its subsidiary called CommandX.
“Together, we will offer carriers and claims teams the broadest investigator coverage in the country, technology that makes every engagement faster and more precise, and an investigative standard built to protect their interests,” Command Investigations CEO Seth Markham said in a news release.
Terms of the deal were not announced.