FILE PHOTO: Boxes of Abbott’s heart stents are pictured inside a store at a hospital in New Delhi, India, April 27, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
April 16, 2020
(Reuters) – Abbott Laboratories Inc <ABT.N> posted a 16% drop in quarterly profit on Thursday partly due to a tax expense and suspended its full-year forecast citing the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
The company’s net earnings fell to $564 million, or 31 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $672 million, or 38 cents per share, a year earlier.
Net sales rose to $7.73 billion from $7.54 billion.
Abbott has so far launched three coronavirus tests in the U.S., including an on-site diagnostic kit that can deliver results within minutes and heralded as a game changer by President Donald Trump.
(Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
