Abbott (NYSE:ABT) shares are down today on first-quarter results that were mixed compared to the consensus forecast.
The Abbott Park, Ill.–based company posted profits of $1.8 billion, or $1 per share, on sales of $10.5 billion for the three months ended March 31, 2021, more than doubling its bottom-line on sales growth of 35.3%.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $1.32, 5¢ ahead of Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $10.7 billion.
Abbott’s revenues and profits were boosted by $2.2 billion in sales for its COVID-19 testing-related products, although its sales still increased by 7.6% excluding those numbers.
Other factors in the company’s performance included CMS’s expanded reimbursement ruling for Abbott’s MitraClip and the launch of its NeuroSphere virtual clinic for remote care services.
“We’re off to a very strong start to the year, with all four of our major businesses achieving strong growth,” Abbott president & CEO Robert B. Ford said in a news release. “We’re particularly pleased with the growing momentum of several recently launched products and continue to forecast more than 35 percent EPS growth for the year.”
Abbott said it now expects to log adjusted EPS of at least $5 for the full year 2021.
ABT shares were down more than –4% at $119.46 per share by midday trading. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — was down slightly.