ABT Abbott Laboratories

By Joseph Walker and Anne Steele 

Abbott Laboratories Inc. on Thursday reported its profit fell 15% in the final quarter of the year, as the stronger dollar weighed on its results in emerging markets.

Abbott also gave annual guidance sharply below Wall Street expectations, which had already come down in recent weeks as analysts anticipated currency exchange challenges. The company expects earnings between $2.10 to $2.20 a share, compared with analyst estimates for $2.26 a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Abbott shares fell 8.9% in midday trading; the stock is down 18.4% since the start of the year.

The health-care company said its results also suffered from challenging market conditions in Venezuela, including high inflation and price controls. The Venezuelan government, which is grappling with falling prices for its oil exports, earlier this month declared a 60-day nationwide economic emergency.

Abbott Chief Executive Miles White said on a Thursday conference call with analysts that the company's performance in international markets remained strong, citing strong sales growth and demand for health-care products in many emerging markets including Latin America and China.

Still, some investors have become skittish about slowing economic growth in emerging markets like China. Those concerns were part of the reason for the decline in Abbott shares on Thursday, Glenn Novarro, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said in an interview.

Mr. White, whose penchant for deal-making has helped drive Abbott's growth in the past, sounded pessimistic about executing acquisitions in the near term, especially in emerging markets. He said that valuations for deal targets continued to be expensive and that he wasn't sure investors would reward expanding the company's risk exposure to emerging markets.

"The price that some of these things would be for sale at would be imprudent," Mr. White said the conference call. "You have to step up and say we're not going to be in that zone, we're not going to be that irrational."

Overall, the company posted a profit of $767 million in the fourth quarter, or 51 cents a share, down from $905 million, or 59 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue decreased 3.1% to $5.19 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast per-share earnings of 61 cents on revenue of $5.23 billion.

Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations, sales in emerging markets rose 17% for the Illinois-based company. Operational sales growth in the quarter was led by double-digit growth in India, China and Russia. Revenue in the U.S., however, declined 5.7%.

World-wide pediatric nutrition revenue fell 1.3%, hurt by a 5% currency impact. In the U.S., sales growth was led by continued uptake of several recently launched non-GMO products.

World-wide adult nutrition sales rose 1.3%, which included a 6.6% foreign exchange drag. World-wide medical devices and world-wide diabetes care sales dipped 5.9% and 5.2%, respectively.

Established pharmaceuticals sales fell 4%, dented 15% by unfavorable currency exchange.

Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 28, 2016 12:50 ET (17:50 GMT)

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