Abbott misses Wall Street expectations on Q4 sales

Abbott (NYSE:ABT) stock is down about 2% at the opening of trading today after its fourth-quarter sales failed to meet analyst expectations.

The Abbott Park, Ill.–based maker of medical device, pharmaceutical, nutrition and diagnostics products brought in about $7.765 billion in revenue in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2018. The sales were up 2.3% from $7.589 billion earned during the same period a year ago but missed the $7.82 billion consensus of analysts polled on Yahoo! Finance.

Fourth-quarter earnings were $654 million, or 37 cents per share, versus a loss of $828 million, or 48 cents per share, a year before. Excluding items, Abbott saw a profit of 81 cents per share, meeting Wall Street expectations.

For the full year of 2018, Abbott saw revenue of $30,578 billion, up 11.6% from $27.390 billion a year before. Earnings excluding items were $2.88 per share, up from $2.50 per share a year before.

Abbott CEO Miles D. White in a news release described 2018 as an outstanding year.  “We exceeded the organic sales growth range we set at the beginning of the year, achieved a number of significant advances in our pipeline, and significantly improved our balance sheet and strategic flexibility. We’re very well-positioned heading into 2019.”

Abbott’s medical device business performed especially well. Sales increased 6.7% year-over-year, to $2,920 billion, during the fourth quarter. For the full year, sales were up 10.1% on a reported basis and 9.1% on an organic basis.

The post Abbott misses Wall Street expectations on Q4 sales appeared first on MassDevice.

from MassDevice http://bit.ly/2S8WRRO