CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:
We trim our 12-month target price to $113 from $130, 24.4x our ’24 EPS forecast, in line with ABT’s historical forward average. We lift our ’23 EPS estimate by $0.03 to $4.43 and maintain our ’24 estimate of $4.63. Q3 adj. EPS of $1.14 vs. $1.15 beat the consensus view by $0.04, driven by sales growth from Nutrition (+16% Y/Y) due to continued market share recapture in the U.S. infant formula business, where ABT has now reclaimed the leadership position, in addition to growth in Medical Device sales (+17% Y/Y), aided by FreeStyle Libre sales growth of 28% in Q3. ABT sees a growing number of Libre users in the U.S. using Libre in combination with GLP-1 medications — a view that these approaches are complimentary as customers using both FreeStyle Libre and GLP-1 exhibited a higher rate of use for both products. Looking towards Q4, we forecast underlying base business organic sales growth (excluding Covid-19 testing sales) to be in the low double digits and anticipate a small negative impact from FX.