Abbott's 2nd qtr profit drops on Guidant buy

Abbott Laboratories says that its second-quarter 2006 net earnings dropped 30.2% on the like, year-ago period, to $612.2 billion. The US health care major's profit was impaired by costs relating to its $4.1 billion acquisition of USA-based Guidant's vascular devices business earlier this year (Marketletter April 17).

Excluding specified items such as the impact of the stock compensation expense, Abbott's diluted earnings per share for the period were $0.62, exceeding the company's previous guidance range of $0.56 to $0.58. Analysts quoted by Reuters estimates had predicted a profit of $0.58 per share, while the firm's diluted EPS under US Generally-Accepted Accounting Principles amounted to $0.40.

Worldwide sales increased 12.3%, but including adjustments to both periods before the amendment of a distribution deal with Boehringer Ingelheim and an 0.9% negative effect of exchange rates, revenues fell 0.4% to $5.5 billion.