NEW YORK (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc <ABT.N> said on Wednesday first-quarter earnings increased 34 percent on higher sales of its prescription drugs and medical devices and favorable foreign exchange factors.
By Ransdell Pierson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc <ABT.N> said on Wednesday first-quarter earnings increased 34 percent on higher sales of its prescription drugs and medical devices and favorable foreign exchange factors.
The company reported strong sales gains for its top medicines, diagnostics and other products even excluding the benefits of the weak dollar, and projected earnings growth in the top tier of the industry.
Net profit rose to $938 million, or 60 cents per share, from $698 million, or 45 cents per share, a year earlier.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Excluding special items, it earned 63 cents per share. On that basis, analysts' average forecast was 62 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.
Sales rose 13.8 percent to $6.77 billion, above the Wall Street forecast of $6.53 billion. Sales would have risen 8.3 percent if not for the weak dollar, which boosts the value of overseas sales when converted back to dollars.
Global sales of prescription drugs jumped 14.3 percent to $3.85 billion, while sales of diagnostics were up 17.1 percent to $832 million. Sales of vascular products, including overseas revenue from its new Xience drug-coated stent, rose 7.6 percent to $452 million.
Sales of nutritional products jumped almost 11 percent to $1.11 billion, fueled by surging demand in overseas markets.
Sales of Abbott's flagship product, arthritis treatment Humira, soared almost 54 percent to $878 million, despite strong competition from Johnson & Johnson's <JNJ.N> Remicade and other products.
Sales of Depakote, used against epilepsy and bipolar disorder, rose 12 percent to $365 million, while HIV treatment Kaletra rose 18 percent to $353 million. TriCor, which lowers blood fats called triglycerides, rose 10 percent to $245 million.
Chicago-based Abbott is one of the highest-priced U.S. drugmaker stocks; the shares trade at almost 15 times expected 2009 per-share earnings, largely due to optimism that Xience will win U.S. approval in the second quarter and become a blockbuster product.
The tiny scaffold-like device, used to prop open heart arteries that have been cleared of plaque, will compete with J&J's Cypher stent and Boston Scientific Corp's <BSX.N> Taxus.
Abbott's revenue growth could also be helped by Simcor, a new pill that combines the active ingredient of Merck & Co's <MRK.N> Zocor drug, used to reduce "bad" LDL cholesterol, with Abbott's Niaspan medicine, which raises "good" HDL cholesterol.
The company said it expects full-year earnings, excluding special items, of $3.20 to $3.25 per share, in line with the average Wall Street forecast of $3.22. That would reflect gains of as much as 14.8 percent from 2007 and likely make Abbott one of the best-performing large U.S. health care companies.
For the second quarter, Abbott projected earnings of 78 to 80 cents per share, also in line with analysts' forecasts.
Abbott shares rose 1.1 percent in premarket trading to $52.50, up from a close at $51.91 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson, additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; editing by John Wallace)
