What happened
Wednesday morning, Abbott Laboratories (ABT 1.18%) beat on both the top and bottom lines in its freshly reported fourth quarter of 2022. This, however, was not good enough to send the veteran pharmaceutical company's stock higher, as its price fell by nearly 1.5% on the day.
So what
For the period, Abbott's sales fell by 12% on a year-over-year basis to just shy of $10.1 billion. That slide was chiefly due to a steep decline in sales of COVID-19 testing-related offerings. Yet even removing that from the equation, the veteran healthcare company still would have recorded a sales drop (by 1.4%).
Meanwhile, non-GAAP (adjusted) net income tumbled more violently, falling by 23% to hit just over $1.8 billion ($1.03 per share).
Analysts tracking the stock were fully expecting the drops. In fact, they were counting on Abbott to do worse; on average, those prognosticators estimated the company would book slightly more than $9.6 billion in sales and net a per-share, adjusted profit of only $0.92.
Yet investors were obviously concerned about the tumbles. Reading deeper into the results, they discovered the disquieting fact that only one of the company's four divisions -- and its smallest -- had eked out a sales increase. This is the established pharmaceuticals unit, which posted a not-particularly impressive 1% gain.
Now what
Abbott also proffered adjusted net-income guidance for the entirety of 2023. The company is forecasting that it will earn $4.30 to $4.50 per share for the year. It did not provide any estimate for sales.
