1Q2018 Earnings Call Highlights Abbott’s $7.4 Billion In Sales

Abbott today announced financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2018. Key takeaways from this morning’s earnings call include:

• First-quarter reported sales growth of 16.7 percent
• First-quarter organic sales growth of 6.9 percent
• First-quarter adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of 59 cents, at the upper end of the previous guidance range
• Several recently launched products contributing to strong growth

"We're off to a strong start to the year as we forecasted," said Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer. "We're particularly pleased with the continued strong growth in medical devices and improving performance in our nutrition business."

The company’s adjusted income rose to 59 cents per share on $7.39 billion in sales for its first quarter, beating Zacks Investment Research estimates of 58 cents on $7.26 billion in sales. Last year at this time, Abbott shares were trading at 48 cents with $6.34 billion in sales.

An infographic from the company highlights an increase of 6.9 percent in worldwide organic sales led by successes in nutrition, diagnostics, established pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

“Back in January I commented that we were entering the year with strong momentum which has continued as we forecasted,” White added during the earnings call. “The strong growth we are achieving is a direct result of the steps we have taken to position the company in the most attractive areas of health care as well as the outstanding productivity of our new product pipeline.”

Despite the company’s upbeat attitude about its Q1 earnings, shares dipped 3.5 percent early Wednesday on pharmaceutical sales that lagged behind Wall Street's expectations by nearly 4 percent.

Revenue from established pharmaceuticals fell short by $56 million, RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note to clients. Also, Evercore noted the $1.04 billion in sales for that unit missed the consensus by 3.6 percent.

Medical device sales had the best organic growth in Q1, rising 9.4 percent to $2.74 billion. That beat the consensus for $2.67 billion, Evercore noted. Diagnostics also performed well, rising 5.5 percent organically to $1.84 billion in sales to top the consensus by $69 million.

“For the full year 2018, we continue to forecast organic sales growth of 6 percent to 7 percent,” said Chief Financial Officer Brian Yoor. “In addition, we continue to expect rapid diagnostics to contribute sales of a little more than $2 billion.”

With a forecasted adjusted gross margin ratio of around 59 percent of sales, Yoor said that research and development investments will be adjusted to around 7.5 percent of sales, and selling, general and administrative expenses adjusted above 30.5 percent of sales.”

Worldwide, nutrition sales were $1.76 billion, up 4.7 percent organically and topping guidance for low single-digit growth. Both adult and pediatric segments performed well, growing a respective 4.3 percent and 5.1 percent on an organic basis.

But, White cautioned, nutrition is a highly competitive business in a branded space. “I give our U.S. team a lot of credit for how well they’ve done in the pediatric and adult (nutrition) space. It’s extremely competitive and it’s competitive in both pediatric and adult. And we will see from time-to-time a competitor tries false advertising or other things to take momentary share. But I think overall, we’ve not only sustained our position, but steadily grown it, from a share standpoint.”

For the year, Abbott reaffirmed its adjusted profit target of $2.80 to $2.90 a share. Analysts modeled adjusted earnings of $2.87 per share and $30.91 billion in sales. Abbott also sees second-quarter adjusted income coming in at 70 to 72 cents per share.