Here are four things to know.
1. Abbott’s fourth-quarter worldwide sales increased 42.3 percent on a reported basis and 7.7 percent on a comparable operational basis.
2. Fourth quarter sales for Abbott’s largest division, medical devices, grew 9.6 percent on an operational basis to $2.74 billion. Abbott’s diagnostic unit rose 6.7 percent to 1.91 billion.
3. The significant growth in the medical device unit was bolstered when Abbott acquired its rival, St. Jude Medical, in 2017. The company’s jump in diagnostic unit sales was assisted by its purchase of a different rival, Alere, which was completed in the fourth quarter.
4. Despite sales growth, Abbott posted a net loss of $828 million, or 48 cents per share, in the fourth quarter. The company attributes the loss to a $1.46 billion charge due to the recent tax overhaul. Excluding the charge from the tax overhaul, Abbott reported a profit of 74 cents per share.
“2017 was a great year for us — we performed well, our new product pipeline was highly productive and we took some very important strategic steps forward,” said Miles White, chairman and CEO of Abbott in a press release. “We’re entering 2018 with very good momentum.”
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