Abbott reports solid results for its fiscal Q4

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is trading down in premarket on Wednesday even though it reported solid results for its fiscal fourth quarter.

Why is Abbott stock down on Wednesday?

Investors seem unhappy also because the healthcare company issued a not-so encouraging guidance for the future.

Abbott now forecasts its sales to climb up to 10% (excluding COVID sales) on $4.50 to $4.70 of per-share earnings in fiscal 2024. Analysts, in comparison, had called for $4.63 a share. Robert Ford – its chief executive said in a press release today:

We’re entering 2024 with a lot of positive momentum, and with our highly productive pipeline, we’re well-positioned for growth in 2024 and beyond.

Abbott stock that currently pays a dividend yield of 1.93% is still up over 20% versus its low in mid-October.

Notable figures in Abbott Q4 earnings release

• Earned $1.59 billion versus a year-ago $1.03 billion
• Per-share earnings also jumped from 59 cents to 91 cents
• Adjusted EPS printed at $1.19 as per the press release
• Revenue went up 2.0% year-on-year to $10.24 billion
• Consensus was $1.19 a share on $10.19 billion in revenue

Abbott did, however, see its COVID sales come in at $288 million – a sharp decline from $1.07 billion a year ago, as per the earnings report. But a 17.5% annualised growth in medical devices sales helped offset that weakness. According to CEO Ford:

The strength and diversity of the Abbott portfolio drove our success in 2023