Abbott Laboratories Cuts Outlook, Narrows 1Q Profit

By Connor Hart

Abbott Laboratories cut its full-year earnings outlook to account for a recent acquisition and said its nutrition unit continued to notch soft sales during the first quarter.

The company, which sells a range of medical products including heart devices and generic drugs, 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.

The company attributed the decrease in part to its acquisition of cancer-diagnostics company Exact Sciences, which was completed last month and is set to ding adjusted earnings by 20 cents a share.

The roughly $21 billion deal, first disclosed in November, positions Abbott to compete in the burgeoning market for multicancer early-detection tests.

Chief Executive Robert Ford said the Exact Sciences acquisition adds a high-growth business to Abbott's portfolio, "further strengthening our confidence in delivering accelerating growth as we move through the year."

Abbott continues to expect full-year organic sales growth in the range of 6.5% to 7.5%. For the current quarter, adjusted earnings are projected to come in between $1.25 and $1.31 a share, missing Wall Street models for $1.36 a share.

Shares fell 4.7%, to $96.76, in premarket trading.

The outlook came as Abbott posted a profit of $1.08 billion, or 61 cents a share, in the first quarter, compared with $1.33 billion, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out one-time items, earnings came in at $1.15 a share, just ahead of the $1.14 a share that analysts expected.

Sales increased 7.8% to $11.16 billion, topping Wall Street models for $11 billion.

Medical device sales climbed 13%, to $5.54 billion. Sales across the company's established pharmaceuticals business were also up 13%, to $1.43 billion, while sales from its diagnostics unit rose 6.1%, to $2.18 billion.

The increases were partially offset by nutrition sales, which fell 6% to $2.02 billion on lower sales volumes. The company, which previously said it would cut prices across its nutrition portfolio in a bid to boost demand, expects to improve volume growth over the course of the year.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

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April 16, 2026 08:23 ET (12:23 GMT)