Jim Cramer: buy Abbott stock after its Q1 earnings report

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is up 8.0% this morning after reporting strong results for its fiscal Q1 despite a significant slowdown in sales of COVID-19 tests.

Jim Cramer’s view on Abbott stock

The health care company continues to see $4.30 a share to $4.50 a share of earnings this year on at least a high single-digit percentage growth in organic sales.

That was sufficient for famed investor and Mad Money host Jim Cramer to recommend buying Abbott stock today.

Nutrition and medical devices did great in Q1

Abbott Laboratories took a 47% hit to its diagnostics revenue in the recent quarter as COVID tests sales crashed from $3.3 billion a year ago to $730 million.

It was, however, offset by the strength in the company’s nutrition and medical devices business. On CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”, Cramer added:

Abbott stock is currently just under its year-to-date high.

Abbott Laboratories Q1 earnings snapshot

• Earned $1.32 billion versus the year-ago $2.45 billion
• Per-share earnings also tanked from $1.37 to 75 cents
• Adjusted EPS printed at $1.03 as per the press release
• Sales declined 18% year-over-year to $9.75 billion
• Consensus was 99 cents EPS on $9.67 billion revenue

The multinational agreed, though, that sales of its COVID tests will bring in $1.5 billion in 2023 versus $2.0 billion it had guided for earlier. Still, Cramer said: