Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) early Wednesday posted much better than expected first quarter earnings results, led by huge growth in its medical devices unit that was bolstered by a recent acquisition.

StockNews.com

The Abbott Park, IL-based healthcare giant reported:

• Q1 earnings per share (EPS) of $0.48, which was $0.05 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.43.
• Revenues rose 29.7% from last year to $6.34 billion, also topping analysts’ view for $6.16 billion.
• Worldwide Nutrition sales fell 1.7% in the latest period.
• Worldwide Diagnostics sales gained 3.6%.
• Established Pharmaceuticals sales rose 7.0%...
• Medical Devices unit...sales...skyrocketed 100.2% from the year-ago period, helped mainly by its recent acquisition of St. Jude Medical.

Looking ahead:

• ABT reiterated its 2017 EPS outlook of $2.40 to $2.50, which straddles Wall Street’s consensus view of $2.45.

Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer, Abbott, commented via press release:

“Our first quarter results reflect a strong start to the year. The integration of St. Jude is going well and recently launched products are contributing to double-digit sales growth across several areas of our Medical Devices business.”

Abbott Laboratories shares rose $1.27 (+2.92%) to $44.70 in premarket trading Wednesday. Year-to-date, ABT had gained 14.50% prior to today’s report, versus a 5.08% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

ABT currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #7 of 135 stocks in the Medical – Pharmaceuticals category.