Abbott Labs Earns 91 Cents Per Share

Abbott Laboratories ($ABT) reported Q1 earnings this morning of 91 cents per share which beat estimates by one penny.

For the period ended March 31, the North Chicago, Ill., company earned $864 million, or 55 cents per share. Excluding one-time items it earned 91 cents per share. Revenue grew 17 percent to $9.04 billion

Analysts polled by FactSet expect earnings per share of 90 cents on revenue of $8.82 billion.

Revenue was led by higher sales of the company’s best-selling product Humira, which increased 18 percent to $1.65 billion. Humira is used to treat inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and has historically accounted for nearly one-fifth of the company’s sales.

Charges included the expense of integrating Solvay Pharmaceuticals and changes to Abbott’s fiscal calendar.

This is an excellent stock. In January, Abbott said it was expecting full-year earnings of $4.54 to $4.64 per share so they seem to be on target so far. That means the stock is going for about 11 times this year’s earnings.

On top of that, the shares currently yield 3.76%. In February, the company increased its dividend for the 39th year in a row.

Posted by on April 20th, 2011 at 7:59 am


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