Abbott (NYSE:ABT) shares hit a 52-week high today after the company said its 2nd-quarter earnings slipped 11.2% on a 2% sales increase.
The Chicago-area medical products maker, which is slated to spin out its branded pharmaceuticals business later this year, posted profits of $1.73 billion, or $1.08 per share, on sales of $9.81 billion during the 3 months ended June 30.
Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, EPS reached $1.23, a penny above Wall Street’s expectations.
ABT shares hit $66.80 apiece today before subsiding to $66.08 as of about 1:30 p.m.
Abbott confirmed its full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $5-$5.10.
Abbott’s market-leading Xience drug-eluting stent platform added $400 million to the top line, down 2.6% compared with Q2 2011. Excluding "the expected decline of certain royalty and supply arrangement revenues," including the wind-down of its private-label deal with Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) for the Promus stent, "operational" sales were up 4.6% worldwide and down 6.0% in the U.S.
White said Abbott expects to regain some U.S. market share as the 4th quarter approaches.
"This is a loyalty transition year with Promus," White told analysts during a conference call today. "The trends are actually pretty good. Xience alone was only down about 2% and the latest share data we’ve gotten in the last couple of days indicates that, May to June, we’ve picked up a couple of share points."
Abbott’s overall vascular business put up sales of $766 million, down 8.3% compared with the same period last year. Its diabetes business was also down, slipping 1.8% to $648 million; sales for Abbott’s medical optics business were flat at $555 million.
