Abbott sales, profit propped up by St. Jude acquisition

Diversified healthcare company Abbott Laboratories reported higher-than-expected quarterly sales and profit on Wednesday, driven by its $25 billion acquisition of St. Jude Medical.

Net sales of the company, which consummated its acquisition of St. Jude Medical earlier this year, rose 29.7 percent to $6.34 billion, ahead of the average analyst estimate of $6.15 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose in three of Abbott’s four core divisions – diagnostics, medical devices and branded generic pharmaceuticals.

Medical device sales rose primarily due to the St. Jude buy, and increased 4.5 percent on a comparable basis to $2.40 billion.

Sales in Abbott’s nutrition business dipped 1 percent on an operational basis to $1.64 billion, hurt mainly by continuing challenging conditions in the Chinese infant formula market.

Excluding items, Abbott earned 48 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate by 5 cents.

Net profit from continuing operations came in at $843 million, or 22 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, compared with $615 million, or 4 cents per share, a year earlier. The results also reflect St. Jude’s year-over-year results.

Last week, Abbott agreed to buy troubled diagnostics company Alere Inc at a lower price of around $5.30 billion, down from the about $5.80 billion announced in February last year, ending a prolonged legal battle.

Shares of Abbott, which maintained its 2017 forecast on Wednesday, were up 2.7 percent at $44.61 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru; Editing by Martina D’Couto)