Abbott's profit rises 33 percent after St. Jude Medical deal

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) - Abbott Laboratories' first-quarter profit jumped nearly 33 percent, helped by its acquisition of medical device maker St. Jude Medical earlier this year.

Its quarterly results beat Wall Street expectations, with shares rising 2.5 percent to $44.50 before the market open on Wednesday.

Abbott makes baby formula, medical devices and drugs. Its $25 billion deal to buy St. Jude Medical was completed in January.

The North Chicago, Illinois-based company reported net income of $419 million, or 24 cents per share, for the three months ended March 31. That compares with $316 million, or 21 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue rose about 30 percent to $6.34 billion in the period, which topped the $6.11 billion that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research predicted.

Abbott expects full-year earnings in a range of $2.40 to $2.50 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $2.45 per share.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ABT at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ABT

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