Abbott
(NYSE: ABT)
today reported fourth-quarter results that beat The Street by a penny on EPS but missed on revenue.
ABT shares were down more than 10% to $108.61 apiece by the close of trading today.
The Abbott Park, Illinois–based life sciences tech company earned $1.78 billion, or $1.01 per share, off of $11.46 billion in sales for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2025. The bottom line was down more than 80% and the top line was up 4.4% compared with Q4 2024.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, Abbott’s EPS was $1.50. The result was a penny ahead of the consensus on Wall Street, where analysts expected EPS of $1.49 and revenue of $11.8 billion.
Abbott management cited challenges in the Nutrition business, where a new pricing strategy was intended to support future volume growth but could affect performance for a couple of quarters.
“Despite facing some challenges in 2025, we achieved our original target of double-digit earnings per share growth. Our new product pipeline continues to be highly productive, and combined with strategic steps we took to shape the company for the future, we’re well positioned for accelerating growth in 2026,” CEO Robert B. Ford said during the company’s earnings call this morning.
The Medical Devices business remained a standout performer at Abbott, with Q4 sales up 12.3% to $5.68 billion. Though BTIG analysts noted that even this growth missed the consensus, with lighter-than-expected Libre CGM sales of roughly $2.0 billion offsetting double-digit growth in Rhythm Management and Heart Failure.
Said Marie Thibault and colleagues at BTIG: “In Devices, we think the minor miss this quarter will keep investors focused on the health of the underlying MedTech market. ABT management emphasized that Q4 volumes were ‘really good’ across all categories. Libre sales growth decelerated in the quarter with some OUS impact from the recall, but ABT sees opportunities for more growth across all patient groups.”
Nutrition was down 8.9% to $1.94 billion, Diagnostics was down 2.5% to $2.46 billion, and Established Pharmaceuticals was up 9.0% to $1.38 billion.
Recent Abbott news included:
- FDA approval of the Volt pulsed field ablation system, the company’s first PFA offering to treat U.S. AFib patients;
- A CE mark for its TactiFlex Duo ablation catheter, sensor-enabled, to treat AFib;
- The Libre Assist, a new Libre CGM app that uses generative AI to predict how food may affect a person’s glucose;
- Plans to acquire Exact Sciences for $21 billion, adding a new high-growth cancer diagnostics business to Abbott’s portfolio.
“I think we’ve got a good setup for 2026, a lot of accelerating growth as we progress through the year,” Ford said.
Abbott projects full-year 2026 organic sales growth to be in the range of 6.5–7.5% and adjusted EPS of $5.55–5.80.
