Abbott (NYSE:ABT) shares are up this morning on reported fourth-quarter 2019 earnings that met Wall Street analysts’ expectations, with sales beating The Street.
The Abbott Park, Ill. company posted profits of $1.705 billion or $0.95 per share, on sales of $8.31 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2019, for a bottom-line gain of 18% on sales growth of 7% compared with Q4 2018.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $0.95, which matched The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $8.26 billion.
The company projected Q1 2020 earnings guidance of $0.69 to $0.71. Wall Street is slightly more optimistic, projecting Q1 2020 earnings of $0.72 on sales of $8.01 billion. Abbott issued full-year 2020 guidance of $3.55 to $3.65 per share, while analysts are projecting earnings of $3.61 on $33.97 billion in sales.
Fourth-quarter sales of medical devices were up 9.7% to $3.2 billion, led by diabetes care, structural heart, heart failure and electrophysiology. Sales of the company’s FreeStyle Libre glucose monitor spiked by 58.5% to $534 million for the quarter, followed by a 27% increase in sales of its MitraClip transcatheter mitral valve repair device with $191 million.
“Our focus on organic growth is driving top-tier performance,” said Abbott CEO Miles White in a news release. “We’re entering 2020 with very good momentum and targeting continued strong growth.”
Stock performance: Investors reacted by sending ABT shares up 2.65% to $92.09 apiece today in early trading.