Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) stock rose 0.84% (As on Apr 21, 11:32:37 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company beaten the earnings estimates for the first quarter of FY 22. The company’s earnings came in at $2.45 billion compared to $1.79 billion in last year’s first quarter. Sales increased 17.5% on an organic basis in the quarter, led by double-digit growth in medical devices, established pharmaceuticals as well as diagnostics, both with and without COVID testing-related sales. Excluding COVID testing-related sales, the global diagnostics sales grew 12% in the quarter, driven by the continued rollout of Alinity, the innovative suite of diagnostic instruments and expanding menus across the testing platforms. In medical devices, sales grew 11.5% in the quarter. This strong performance was led by double-digit growth in diabetes care, structural heart, heart failure and electrophysiology. In diabetes care, sales of FreeStyle Libre grew more than 25% on an organic basis in the quarter and the user base has now reached approximately 4 million users globally.

ABT in the first quarter of FY 22 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.73, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.46, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 13.8 percent to $11.9 billion in the first quarter of FY 22. The adjusted gross margin ratio was 59.1% of sales, which reflects higher than normal fall-through on COVID testing sales as a result of significant production volumes during the first quarter, partially offset by the impacts of the nutrition recall and somewhat higher-than-expected inflation on certain manufacturing and distribution costs in the quarter. Adjusted research and development investment was 5.6% of sales and adjusted SG&A investment was 23.1% of sales in the first quarter.

For the full year 2022, the company expects adjusted earnings per share guidance to be of at least $4.70. The total company organic sales growth, excluding the impact of COVID testing-related sales, is expected to be in the mid- to high single digits. The company forecasts COVID testing-related sales to be of approximately $4.5 billion with a significant portion of these sales expected to occur in the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, in the US, the company has received FDA approval for Aveir, the leadless pacemaker to treat patients with slow heart rhythms. In Japan, expanded reimbursement for Libre will now cover all people with diabetes who use insulin at least once a day.