Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) released its third-quarter results Wednesday.
The U.S.-based global health care company reported revenue of $5.3 billion (up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis), missing analysts' expectations by $80 million, and adjusted diluted EPS of 65 cents (up 4.84% on a year-over-year basis), in line with analysts' expectations.
Analysts estimated EPS of 65 cents on average, which ranged between a low estimate of 63 cents and a high estimate of 66 cents.
During the fourth quarter, the increase in sales was driven by Medical Devices with $1.354 billion (up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis), Established Pharmaceuticals with $979 million (up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis) and Diagnostics with $1.256 billion (up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis), offset by a 3.7% (on a year-over-year basis) decline in the Nutrition segment that accounted for $1.733 billion in sales.
Worldwide Nutrition sales decreased mainly due to difficult conditions on the Chinese market faced by Abbott in its worldwide Paediatric Nutrition segment.
Strong fourth-quarter paediatric nutrition subsegment performance in Latin America and Southeast Asia plus operational sales growth led by Ensure could only partially offset the worldwide Nutrition segment's sales decline.
The increase in the sales of the Diagnostics segment was driven by the ongoing U.S. and international acceptance of the company’s i-STAT handheld system (point of Care Diagnostics subsegment).
The growth in the sales of Abbott's Established Pharmaceuticals segment was driven by a significant growth of sales in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and in many South American countries. BRIC’s sales accounted for approximately 45% of the company’s total sales of the Established Pharmaceuticals segment.
The sales growth in the Medical Devices segment was driven by increases in the sales of all three subsegments – Vascular, Diabetes Care and Medical Optics. The sales of the Vascular products, which accounted for approximately 53.25% of the company’s total segment of Medical Devices, were driven by a substantial increase of the sales of MitraClip, a device designed for the treatment of mitral insufficiency.
Abbott Laboratories also provided EPS guidance for full-year 2017 and for the first quarter of 2017.
For full-year 2017, the company expects to report EPS of between 92 cents and $1.02 and non-GAAP EPS of between $2.40 and $2.50.
For the first quarter, Abbott Labs expects to report EPS between 19 cents and 21 cents and non-GAAP EPS between 42 cents and 44 cents.
Abbott declared the 372nd quarterly dividend of 26.5 cents per share in December. The current dividend yield is 2.63%.
The proportion of earnings that Abbott Labs pays out to its shareholders in the form of dividends has been raised by the company for 45 years in a row..
Abbott is part of the Standard & Poor's 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index.
Abbott trades around $39.96 per share on the New York Stock Exchange and outperformed the S&P 500 year to date.
Disclosure: I have no position in Abbott Laboratories.
Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.
