Abbott Lab Shares Up After Big 1Q Profit Increase

Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) rose Wednesday after the health care products maker reported a 43 percent jump in first-quarter earnings on a higher sales in emerging markets and also raised its full-year earnings guidance.

Net income climbed to $1.24 billion, or 78 cents per share, from $864 million, or 55 cents per share, a year-earlier, the Abbott Park, Ill.-based company said. Earnings before taxes rose 41.6 percent.

Excluding restructuring and acquisition-related charges, Abbott earned $1.65 billion, or $1.03 per share, compared with $1.42 billion, or 91 cents per share, last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of $1.

Revenue rose 4.6 percent to $9.46 billion from $9.04 billion. Excluding foreign exchange, worldwide sales increased nearly 6 percent. Analysts expected $9.37 billion.

Abbott is in the process of separating its proprietary drug unit and medical products business into two separately traded companies by the end of this year. The company's topselling anti-inflammatory drug Humira brought in $1.93 billion, an increase of 17 percent from a year ago; Humira's U.S. patent will expire in 2016.

Emerging markets sales jumped 10 percent. Global nutritional sales increased 10.4 percent, and U.S. nutritional sales climbed 11 percent. Also in the U.S., pediatric nutritional sales rose 15.4 percent.

The S&P 500 component, which is also the world's sixth-largest pharmaceutical company, raised its earnings-per-share guidance for this year to $5 to $5.10 from an earlier estimate of $4.95 to $5.05 provided in January.

Shares rose 35 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $60.78 shortly after the market opened.