Abbott Labs’ stock up 1.6% premarket after earnings fall but still top analyst estimates

 Abbott Laboratories’ stock
ABT,
+4.24%
rose 1.6% in premarket trade Thursday, after the diagnostics and medical-device company posted earnings that were lower than a year ago but ahead of analyst estimates. The company had net income of $1.375 billion, or 78 cents a share, for the quarter, down from $2.018 billion, or $1.14 a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to $1.08, ahead of the $1.05 FactSet consensus. Sales fell 11.4% to $9.978 billion, but were also ahead of the $9.972 billion FactSet consensus. Sales fell as COVID-19 testing -related sales were down from a year ago. The company is still expecting full-year adjusted EPS of $4.30 to $4.50. It expects full-year sales excluding COVID testing to grow by low double-digits and for COVID testing-related sales to come to about $1.3 billion. The stock has fallen 2.3% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.68%
has gained 19%.