Abbott's third-quarter results edge past Street

[October 19, 2016]  (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories, which is in the process of acquiring St. Jude Medical Inc for $25 billion, reported third-quarter results that nudged past Wall Street estimates, driven by strength in its medical devices business.

The company has been focusing on its device and diagnostics businesses this year, after announcing the deal to buy St. Jude and a $5.80 billion deal to takeover Alere Inc.

Abbott, which spun off AbbVie Inc in 2013, has four core divisions - nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices and branded generic pharmaceuticals.

The company narrowed its adjusted profit from continuing operations forecast to a range of $2.19 to $2.21 per share from $2.14 to $2.24.

The Abbott Park, Illinois-based company's stock was down about 2 percent in light premarket trading on Wednesday.

Abbott and St. Jude announced a $1.12 billion deal on Tuesday to sell some of their devices to Japan-based Terumo Corp, an important step toward completing the acquisition, scheduled to close by the year end.

Abbott reported a net loss from continuing operations of $329 million, or 24 cents per share, primarily due to an adjustment of 66 cents per share associated with Abbott's equity investment in Mylan NV.

The company sold its generic drugs business catering to developed markets to Mylan in 2014.

Excluding items, Abbott earned 59 cents per share, on sales of $5.30 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 59 cents per share and revenue of $5.29 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

St. Jude, which reported its quarterly results separately on Wednesday, posted a quarterly adjusted profit of 99 cents, missing Wall Street estimates by 2 cents.

(Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D'Couto)

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