Abbott Labs posts flat 3rd-quarter profit

Abbott Laboratories Inc. said Wednesday its third-quarter profit held steady, as one-time charges offset the impact of strong sales of its blockbuster drug Humira.

The health care products company earned $717 million, or 46 cents per share, compared with $715.8 million, or 46 cents per share, during the same period last year. Excluding one-time items, the company said it earned 67 cents per share in the July-to-September period.

"Abbott's strong performance this quarter was again balanced across our major broad-based businesses," Chief Executive Miles White said in a statement. "We expect this momentum to continue."

Revenue rose 14 percent to $6.38 billion from $5.57 billion a year ago, ahead of Wall Street forecasts.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 66 cents per share excluding one-time items on revenue of $6.24 billion.

"As expected, Abbott posted a solid 3Q driven by strong underlying top line growth," Goldman Sachs analyst Lawrence Keusch wrote in a research note.

Worldwide sales of Abbott's pharmaceuticals grew 20 percent, propelled by the top-selling Crohn's disease drug Humira, which surged nearly 49 percent to $803 million.

Medical product sales grew 12 percent, helped by sales of diabetes care products such as Abbott's FreeStyle Lite glucose meter. Nutritional sales grew about 4 percent.

Still, the company was burdened by nearly $330 million in after-tax charges, nearly a third of which came from contract termination and litigation.

North Chicago-based Abbott also raised the low-end of its full-year guidance, forecasting profit between $2.82 and $2.84 per share, up from previous estimates of $2.80 to $2.84. The outlook excludes about 44 cents per share in costs, including charges from its 2006 acquisition of a Guidant unit from Boston Scientific Corp. as well as cost-cutting initiatives and inventory writedowns.

"We're obviously pleased with our very strong performance," said John Thomas, vice president of investor relations.

Wall Street analysts have been predicting full-year earnings of $2.82 per share.

For the first nine months of the year, Abbott earned $2.4 billion, or $1.54 per share, up from $2.2 billion, or $1.43 a share in 2006. Revenue was $18.7 billion, up 15 percent from $16.26 billion in 2006.

Abbott shares fell 77 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $51.209 in trading on Wednesday.

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