Medical equipment business accelerates but diagnostic "slows down" Abbott Laboratories (ABT.US) performance falls short of expectations.

The leading company in the field of healthcare in the United States, Abbott Laboratories (ABT.US), announced quarterly revenue below Wall Street analysts' expectations before the market opened on Wednesday, mainly due to the strong demand for its medical devices products not being able to offset the weak trends in its medical diagnostics and nutrition business. In their performance guidance, the company's management slightly lowered the upper limit of earnings per share outlook, highlighting negative expectations due to the uncertainty brought by Trump's policies. As a result of the negative impact of the latest performance, the company's stock price fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading. According to LSEG compiled data, Abbott Laboratories' overall revenue for the third quarter ending on September 30 was approximately $11.37 billion, slightly lower than the average analyst expectation of $11.40 billion. However, their diagnostic business unit (mainly responsible for the sale of convenient testing products for diseases such as COVID-19 and diabetes) unexpectedly saw a 6.6% decrease in sales to $2.25 billion, lower than the average Wall Street analysts' expectation of $2.29 billion. Driven by strong demand for continuous glucose monitoring devices and more advanced cardiac devices, sales in Abbott Laboratories' medical devices business unit grew by 14.8% in the third quarter, reaching $5.45 billion. Major players in the U.S. healthcare industry are generally facing headwinds in their overall business sales growth prospects due to normalization of demand after the COVID-19 pandemic and regulatory policy reversals such as the Trump administration's freeze on external economic assistance. On an adjusted basis, Abbott Laboratories reported earnings per share of $1.30 for the third quarter, in line with the average Wall Street analysts' expectations. The company now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $5.12 to $5.18, compared to the previous range of $5.10 to $5.20, highlighting the downward adjustment of upper-end earnings expectations by Abbott Laboratories due to uncertainty in tariffs and regulatory policies. Last month, the Trump administration launched a comprehensive investigation into the import of medical devices under Section 232 of the U.S. Antitrust Act, sparking the possibility of new tariffs on the industry and strengthening scrutiny of foreign medical supply chains. The company also stated that their previous expectations of tariffs affecting less than $200 million in impact for the year have not changed. Despite the strong performance of Abbott Laboratories' Q3 medical devices business (such as diabetes and cardiovascular devices), it was not able to fully offset the aforementioned drag. Additionally, Abbott Laboratories' performance guidance slightly narrowed/reiterated sales center, indicating that the company's performance issues are more related to product mix and normalizing cycles, as well as the negative impact of the frequent changes in regulatory policies since Trump's return to office in January, rather than demand collapse.