Abbott Labs Profit Rises, But Nutrition Business Struggles

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2017 09:22 ET (14:22 GMT)

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