Abbott Laboratories Cuts Outlook, Says Mild Flu Season Hurt 1Q Sales -- Update
ABT
Published on 04/16/2026 at 11:14 am EDT
By Connor Hart
Abbott Laboratories cut its full-year earnings outlook to account for a recent acquisition and said a weaker-than-expected flu season hurt its recent quarter.
The medical-products maker said Thursday it now expects adjusted earnings of $5.38 to $5.58 a share for the year. That compares with a prior outlook of $5.55 to $5.80 a share, and it is below the $5.60 a share that analysts had forecast, according to FactSet.
Abbott attributed the lower outlook to its acquisition of cancer-diagnostics company Exact Sciences, which was completed last month and is expected to dent adjusted earnings by 20 cents a share.
The acquisition was completed earlier than expected, resulting in a headwind of 2 cents a share during the first quarter and requiring Abbott to take out loans sooner than anticipated, JPMorgan analysts said. Profit fell in the recent period, as sales of certain diagnostic tests were stymied by the mild respiratory season.
Shares were recently down 4.2%, to $97.25, on pace for their lowest close in over two years. The stock has lost roughly a quarter of its value over the past 52 weeks.
Despite the near-term earnings hit, Chief Executive Robert Ford said the Exact Sciences acquisition will accelerate Abbott's long-term sales growth rate. The buy is expected to add about $3 billion of incremental sales this year, he added.
There is also a possibility that Abbott could make up some of its lost diagnostic test sales later this year, depending on the upcoming respiratory season.
"I'm not going to try and call what type of flu season we're going to have," Ford said. "But if the flu season is as aggressive as we've seen in other years, then we have the manufacturing, we have the distribution, we have the sales force."
Sales of Abbott's rapid- and molecular-diagnostic tests fell 7.4% during the recent quarter. Despite the drag, sales across the company's broader diagnostics unit were up 6.1%.
Medical-device sales were up 13% in the recent quarter, to $5.54 billion, while sales across the company's established pharmaceuticals business also climbed 13%, to $1.43 billion.
The increases were offset by soft nutrition sales, which fell 6% to $2.02 billion on lower volumes. Abbott last year raised prices across the business, which includes Similac baby formula and Ensure drinks, and those higher prices hurt demand. The company has since brought prices down, a move Ford said is starting to pay off.
"Early data indicates we are seeing the intended effect, with volume growth beginning to follow our pricing actions," he said, noting the recent quarter's sales decline wasn't as steep as expected.
Abbott's first-quarter profit fell to $1.08 billion, or 61 cents a share, from $1.33 billion, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings of $1.15 a share were just ahead of analyst views for $1.14 a share.
Sales increased 7.8% to $11.16 billion and topped Wall Street models for $11 billion.
Write to Connor Hart at [email protected]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-16-26 1113ET