Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) stock rose 2.73% (As on January 23, 11:23:57 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company forecast 2025 profit that came in line with Wall Street estimates as it expects new device launches and growing demand for its glucose monitors to offset a hit from weakness in China and a stronger dollar. The company, which makes medical devices and also sells nutrition products such as baby formula, has seen a large boost to sales from strong demand for FreeStyle Libre – its continuous glucose monitor.
Moreover, for nutrition, the sales increased 7% in the quarter. The growth in the quarter was driven by double digit growth in adult nutrition, led by our market-leading Ensure and Glucerna brands. The company achieved a significant milestone last year with annual sales of Ensure surpassing $3 billion. This achievement helped deliver another year of strong performance in adult nutrition with annual sales of adult nutrition products growing 9% last year. In core laboratory diagnostics, growth of 4% was driven by continued strong demand for our market-leading immunoassay, clinical chemistry, hematology, and blood screening testing panels. EPD sales increased 8.5% in the quarter. The growth was well balanced across markets and therapeutic areas that we participate in, including gastroenterology, women’s health, CNS, and pain management. EPD also delivered broad-based growth across the markets we serve, including double-digit growth in several countries across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. In medical devices, the sales grew 14%. In diabetes care, sales of continuous glucose monitors were $1.8 billion in the quarter and grew 23%. In structural heart, growth of 23% was driven by strong performance across our market-leading portfolio of surgical valves, structural interventions, and transcatheter repair and replacement products.
ABT in the fourth quarter of FY 24 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.34, which is inline with the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.34. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 10.1 percent to $10.97 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 24, missing the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $11.01 billion.
Abbott expects an adjusted profit of $5.05 to $5.25 per share for 2025, compared with analysts’ average profit expectation of $5.16. For the year, ABT forecast organic sales growth to be in the range of 7.5% to 8.5%.
The company expects a first-quarter adjusted profit of $1.05 to $1.09 per share, below analysts’ average estimate of $1.11.