Investors Greet Abbott 2Q Earnings Number

Abbott Laboratories

delivered better than expected adjusted earnings number for the second quarter while sales came in line with the predictions. This was enough for investors to boost the share price in the pre-market trading on Wednesday. Abbott reported 21.6 percent drop in profit to $615 million from $784 million while earnings dipped 23.1 percent to $0.40 a share from $0.52 a share in the year earlier quarter. On an adjusted basis, its earnings would have increased 5.8 percent to $0.55 from $0.52 in the year-ago quarter. This was $0.02 a share higher than the Zack analysts' expectations. Its net sales advanced 3.2 percent to $5.33 billion from $5.2 billion in the previous year quarter. This was slightly ahead of the Zack analysts' predictions of $5.26 billion. Commenting on the results, the company's chairman and CEO, Miles White, said, "It was a good quarter. We're particularly pleased with the steady cadence of new product approvals and recent launches that are contributing to growth, including FreeStyle Libre, MitraClip, Absorb and Symfony." Moving ahead, Abbott expects earnings from continuing operations to be $1.26 - $1.36 a share and adjusted earnings of $2.14 - $2.24 a share for the full year. Zack analysts are looking for $2.20 a share. Following this, shares of the company advanced 3.11 percent on Wednesday's pre-market trading.