Abbott reports strong sales
Global health-care giant Abbott Laboratories reported an earnings gain of nearly 35 percent for its first quarter, a result driven by double-digit growth of its anti-inflammatory medicine Humira. The results beat Wall Streets estimates by one cent.
Earnings at the Libertyville Township-based company were $937.9 million, or 60 cents per diluted share, for the first quarter ended March 31, compared with $697.5 million, or 45 cents per diluted share, in the year-earlier period.
Excluding a number of charges, the company reported earnings of $987.7 million, or 63 cents per diluted share, just beating Yahoo Finance's 62 cents per share estimate composed of 13 analysts.
Sales rose nearly 14 percent to $6.8 billion in the first quarter, compared with $5.9 billion in the comparable period last year.
The company said the increase was largely due to a 54 percent jump in sales of Humira, which grew to $878 million in the first quarter. Humira is an anti-inflammatory drug that received Food and Drug Administration approval in 2002 and was approved for use in Japan Wednesday. Abbot forecasts global Humira sales of more than $4 billion this year.
"We had a strong first quarter, delivering double-digit sales and earnings growth ahead of our expectations. In addition, we confirmed our earnings per share outlook for the full year which reflects strong double-digit growth," said Thomas C. Freyman, chief financial officer of the company, in a conference call Wednesday.
Analyst Damien Conover of Morningstar Inc., a Chicago-based investment research firm, said the "strength in Humira continues to exceed our expectations." But in an e-mail he noted the company'ssolid first-quarter results were in line with expectations.
According to Yahoo Finance, analysts forecast earnings of $3.22 per share in 2008 and second quarter profits of 79 cents per share.
In the quarter ended March 31, Abbott gained five regulatory approvals that include Humira for psoriasis and for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, Simcor for cholesterol, and the FreeStyle Freedom Lite and FreeStyle Navigator glucose monitoring systems.
Abbot stock closed Wednesday at $51.35, down 1.08 percent from Tuesday's closing price of $51.91.