Abbott Laboratories Beats Estimates But Has a Big Earnings Drop

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

Abbott Laboratories (NYS: ABT) reported earnings on April 17. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
 For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), Abbott Laboratories met expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue dropped significantly. Non-GAAP earnings per share shrank significantly. GAAP earnings per share shrank significantly.


Margins dropped across the board.

Revenue details
 Abbott Laboratories booked revenue of $5.38 billion. The 16 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ wanted to see sales of $5.41 billion on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 43% lower than the prior-year quarter's $9.46 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
 EPS came in at $0.42. The 17 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $0.40 per share. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.42 for Q1 were 59% lower than the prior-year quarter's $1.03 per share. GAAP EPS of $0.34 for Q1 were 56% lower than the prior-year quarter's $0.77 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
 For the quarter, gross margin was 54.8%, 580 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 11.4%, 680 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 10.1%, 300 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. (Margins calculated in GAAP terms.)

Looking ahead
 Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $5.60 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.44.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $22.63 billion. The average EPS estimate is $1.99.

Investor sentiment
 The stock has a five-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 2,530 members out of 2,623 rating the stock outperform, and 93 members rating it underperform. Among 695 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 681 give Abbott Laboratories a green thumbs-up, and 14 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Abbott Laboratories is outperform, with an average price target of $35.37.

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The article Abbott Laboratories Beats Estimates But Has a Big Earnings Drop originally appeared on Fool.com.

Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor ofMotley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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