Abbott Labs Profit Rises, But Nutrition Business Struggles
January 25 2017 - 8:37AM
Dow Jones News
By Joshua Jamerson
Abbott Laboratories said profit and revenue rose in the latest
quarter, helped by strength in its laboratory diagnostics unit and
sales of its medical devices, but its nutrition business continued
to weigh on results.
Abbott completed its tie-up with St. Jude Medical earlier this
month, a deal announced in April that Abbott viewed as a way to
bulk up its medical-devices business to better compete against
rivals such as Medtronic PLC and Boston Scientific Corp.
Total medical devices sales increased 4.4% in the latest quarter
-- which ended in December, before the St. Jude deal closed -- and
world-wide diagnostics sales increased 2.9%. Meanwhile, sales in
its nutrition segment -- the company's largest -- fell 3.7%, hurt
particularly by international pediatric sales, which the company
blamed on challenging market conditions in China. Abbott's smaller
established pharmaceuticals segment posted sales growth of
10.6%.
In all for the December quarter, Abbott reported net income of
$798 million, or 53 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier
profit of $767 million, or 51 cents a share. Excluding items, the
company earned 65 cents a share, which was in line with its prior
guidance.
Sales rose to $5.33 billion from $5.19 billion in the prior
quarter. Operational revenue, which factors out currency changes,
rose 4.7%. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters anticipated revenue
of $5.38 billion.
For the year, the company expects profit, excluding certain
items such as acquisition-related expenses, to be in a range of
$2.40 to $2.50 a share; analysts forecast $2.46 a share. For the
first quarter, Abbott expects to earn between 42 cents and 44 cents
a share; that is lower than the 50 cents anticipated by
analysts.
Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 25, 2017 09:22 ET (14:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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