Abbott ticks up as Q3 tops Wall Street’s forecast

October 18, 2017 By Brad Perriello Leave a Comment

Share prices ticked up today in pre-market trading for Abbott (NYSE:ABT) after the healthcare giant posted sales and profits that beat the consensus forecast on Wall Street.

Chicago-area Abbott reported profits of $1.16 billion, or 34¢ per share, on sales of $6.83 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, for a bottom-line gain of 31.1% on sales growth of 28.8% compared with Q3 2016.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 66¢, a penny ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $6.72 billion.

“We’re very pleased with our performance and the steady cadence of innovative new product launches that are contributing to growth,” chairman & CEO Miles White said in prepared remarks. “We’re well-positioned to achieve the upper end of our initial full-year EPS guidance range.”

Abbott raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $2.48 to $2.50 from $2.43 to $2.53 previously; fourth-quarter adjusted EPS are pegged at 72¢ to 74¢, the company said.

The news pushed ABT shares up 0.8% to $55.51 apiece today ahead of the open.

Medtech sales surge after St. Jude Medical acquisition

Sales for Abbott’s medical device division, its largest by revenues, nearly doubled to $2.60 billion thanks to its $25 billion acquisition of St. Jude Medical earlier this year. Established pharmaceutical sales grew 15.7% to $1.17 billion and nutritional sales were $1.77 billion, up 0.8%. Diagnostics sales were up 5.4% to $1.28 billion.

Within the medtech segment, Abbott reported $1.23 billion in revenues gained from its entry into the markets St. Jude plays in: cardiac rhythm management sales of $511 million; electrophysiology sales of $342 million; heart failure sales of $170 million; and neuromodulation sales of $208 million.

The company also reported vascular sales growth of 17.1% to $724 million, structural heart sales of $269 million, up 210.1%, and diabetes sales of $373 million, up 21.7%.

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