Jan 22 (Reuters) – Abbott forecast current-quarter profit below estimates after missing Wall Street expectations for quarterly revenue on Thursday, hurt by weakness in its diagnostics and nutrition businesses, sending shares down 6% in premarket trading.
The Illinois-headquartered company had warned of a roughly $700 million revenue hit for its diagnostics business in 2025, driven primarily by the steep drop‑off in COVID‑19 testing demand and pricing pressure from China’s volume‑based procurement program, which buys laboratory equipment and consumables in bulk at substantial discounts.
Sales in Abbott’s diagnostics segment fell 2.5% from a year earlier to $2.46 billion, missing estimates of $2.51 billion.
Its sales in the nutritional segment fell 8.9% from a year earlier to $1.94 billion, weighed by reduced volume and recent strategic price cuts.
Abbott’s pediatric nutrition business, which sells baby formulas, has been under the scanner over lawsuits alleging its specialized formula for premature infants caused babies to develop a dangerous bowel disease called necrotizing enterocolitis.
Still, CEO Robert Ford said Abbott is “well positioned for accelerating growth in 2026”, banking on new product launches to revive volume growth.
Abbott expects adjusted per-share profit between $1.12 and $1.18 for the first quarter, below analysts’ average estimate of $1.20 per share according to data compiled by LSEG.
The company’s total revenue for the quarter was $11.46 billion, compared with analysts’ average expectation of $11.80 billion.
On an adjusted basis, Abbott reported fourth-quarter profit per share of $1.50, which was in line with analyst expectations.
(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury and Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
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