By Mackenzie Tatananni
Shares of Abbott Laboratories tumbled Thursday after the medical devices maker posted fourth-quarter earnings and sales that underwhelmed Wall Street.
For the fourth quarter, Abbott reported adjusted earnings of $1.50 a share, slightly better than the $1.49 consensus among analysts tracked by FactSet.
The company logged roughly $11.5 billion in sales, missing the $11.8 billion analysts had forecast. Sales increased 3% from a year earlier on an organic basis.
The company said it expects adjusted earnings in the range of $5.55 to $5.80 a share for the full year. Analysts were looking for $5.68 a share, at the midpoint of the range.
Abbott also is targeting full-year organic sales growth of between 6.5% to 7.5%. The company is "well-positioned for accelerating growth in 2026," CEO Robert Ford said.
Shares sank 5.7% to $113.89 following the report. Futures tracking the benchmark S&P 500 index were up 0.5%.
Abbott, whose portfolio spans medical devices and nutrition products, agreed last year to acquire Exact Sciences as it looks to lead in the cancer diagnostics market.
If the roughly $21 billion deal goes through, it will be Abbott's largest since 2017. The company said Thursday that the deal remains on track to close sometime in the second quarter of 2026.
Although results were in line with analysts' expectations, the stock dropped at the time of Abbott's third-quarter earnings report due to weak sales in its nutrition business, which includes the infant formula brand Similac.
The stock reaction appeared to be part of a broader pattern. In July, shares tumbled 8.5% after second-quarter results largely met expectations but guidance came in softer than expected.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com
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January 22, 2026 07:49 ET (12:49 GMT)
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