Abbott Laboratories raised its adjusted profit forecast for 2016 and posted quarterly earnings and revenue ahead of analyst estimates, helped by strength in all its businesses.
The company, which agreed to buy diagnostics company Alere for $5.8 billion in February, has four core divisions – nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices and branded generic pharmaceuticals.
Abbott’s performance was helped by better-than-expected operational growth across all divisions, with diabetes care being the only point of weakness in the quarter, said Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Holford in a note on Wednesday.
Sales of nutritional products, which include Similac infant formula and Ensure nutritional drinks, rose 4.3 per cent to $1.67 billion on an operational basis.
However, a strong dollar took a big bite out of its nutritional products‘ sales, which rose just 0.1 per cent on a reported basis. The business contributed nearly 34 per cent to its total revenue in the latest quarter.
Net earnings from continuing operations fell to $615 million, or 4 US cents per share, for the first quarter to March 31st from $719 million, or 35 cents a er share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, Abbott earned 41 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 39 cents per share and revenue of $4.78 billion.
Overall, net sales were little changed at $4.89 billion, constrained by the dollar‘s strength. About two-thirds of the company‘s products were sold outside the United States in the quarter.
Abbott, spun off from AbbVie in 2013, said it would also bump up its adjusted 2016 profit forecast to $2.14 to $2.24 per share from its prior estimate of $2.10-$2.20.
The company has been focusing on its generic pharmaceuticals business in the emerging markets, after selling a portion of its generic drug assets in developed markets to Mylan in 2014.
Abbott‘s branded generic drug sales rose about 11 per cent to $888 million on an operational basis.
Sales in key emerging markets were driven by continued double-digit growth in India, which comprises more than 20 per cent of Abbott‘s established pharmaceutical sales. – Reuters
