Abbott beats quarterly profit, but pulls forecast on coronavirus concerns

[April 16, 2020]    (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories <ABT.N> beat quarterly profit estimates on Thursday as stay-at-home orders prompted customers to stockpile its nutrition products but the company suspended its full-year forecast due to the coronavirus-fueled uncertainty.

Boxes of Abbott's heart stents are pictured inside a store at a hospital in New Delhi, India, April 27, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Shares of the company, which makes products ranging from laboratory test kits to children's protein drink PediaSure, rose 2% in premarket trading.

Abbott has launched three coronavirus tests in the United States, including an on-site diagnostic kit that can deliver results within minutes and heralded as a game changer by President Donald Trump.

However, sales in its diagnostics unit fell nearly 1% to $1.83 billion, as increased use of its tests for the fast-spreading virus could not offset the decline in demand for its other diagnostic tests.

Sales at the company's nutrition products division rose 6.3% to $1.90 billion, benefiting from increased demand for children's products in late March as U.S. states began to impose shelter-in-place restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.

The company's net earnings fell to $564 million, or 31 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $672 million, or 38 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, it earned 65 cents per share, above the average analyst estimate of 58 cents per share, according to Refinitiv data.

Net sales rose 2.5% to $7.73 billion, ahead of the average estimate of $7.34 billion.

(Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.