Abbott Labs 2Q Profit Narrows 11% on Charges, Soft Sales

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) reported an 11.2% drop in second-quarter profit on restructuring charges but topped Wall Street expectations and backed its fiscal guidance on strong Humira sales.

The Abbott Park, Ill.-based drug maker said it earned $1.7 billion, or $1.08 a share, compared with a year-earlier $1.9 billion, or $1.23 a share.

Excluding one-time items, Abbott Labs earned $1.23 a share, beating average analyst estimates in a Thomson Reuters poll by a penny.

Revenue for the three-month period was $9.81 billion, up from $9.6 billion a year ago but narrowly below the Street’s view of $9.84 billion.

The gains were led by blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug Humira, which jumped 16.5% to $2.33 billion during the quarter, as well as a 4.9% improvement to $1.58 billion in nutritional product sales.

"During the second quarter, we launched and advanced numerous projects in our promising, broad-based pipeline and achieved key milestones in the separation process,” Abbott CEO Miles White said in a statement.

However sales declines among other key drugs such as cholesterol drugs Trilipix and TriCor, HIV drug Kaletra and cancer treatment Lupron, as well as high restructuring costs related to its planned split, weighed on its bottom line.

The company remains on track to split into two separate health care companies, White said.

Abbott announced plans last year to spin off its proprietary pharmaceuticals business, which booked $4.38 billion in sales in the latest quarter, into a separate company called AbbView. The remaining businesses, including diagnostics and nutritional products, will remain a part of Abbott Labs.

The company reaffirmed its fiscal 2012 non-GAAP earnings in the range of $5 to $5.10 a share, bracketing average estimates of $5.04. Shares of Abbott touched an all-time high on Wednesday but were trading relatively flat.