Abbott shares down on shrinking Q1 profits

Shares in Abbott (NYSE:ABT) fell today after the medical device maker met expectations on Wall Street but saw profits shrink in its first quarter earnings release.

The Abbott Park, Ill.-based company posted profits of $418 million, or 23¢ per share, on sales of approximately $7.4 billion for the three months ended March 31, seeing the bottom line shrink 0.2% while sales grew 16.7%.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 59¢, just ahead of the 58¢ consensus on Wall Street where analysts expected to see sales of $7.3 billion for the quarter.

“We’re off to a strong start to the year as we forecasted. We’re particularly pleased with the continued strong growth in Medical Devices and improving performance in our Nutrition business,” chair & CEO Miles White said in a prepared statement.

Abbott released updated guidance for the year, expecting to see diluted EPS for the year of between $1.23 and $1.33. Non-GAAP EPS from continuing operations is expected to be between $2.80 and $2.90.

For its next quarter, Abbott said it expects to post GAAP EPS of 33¢ and 35¢, with non-GAAP EPS of between 70¢ and 72¢.

Shares in Abbott have fallen 2.1% so far today, at $58.53 as of 10:03 a.m. EDT.

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