Abbott Posts Strong 2019 Results

Another highly successful year of performance gives us momentum for the year ahead.

Strategy and Strength|Jan.22, 2020

We closed out 2019 on top once again!

Thanks to strong performances by all four of our businesses, impressive organic growth and more than 25 significant product approvals and developments, Abbott had another successful year.

Contributing to this success was our strong fourth-quarter results with organic sales* growth of 8.5% (7.1% reported), led by double-digit growth in several businesses — Medical Devices, Established Pharmaceuticals and Core Laboratory.

As we look ahead to 2020, we expect another standout year. We announced full-year adjusted earnings-per-share guidance of $3.55 to $3.65 ($2.35 to $2.45 on a GAAP basis), reflecting double-digit growth at the midpoint and organic sales growth of 7.0 to 8.0%.†

Our sound strategy fuels this consistent, quarter-after-quarter growth. Key to this strategy is the deliberate way we’ve built the company, and our commitment to important healthcare trends.

Our Portfolio is Delivering Top-Line Growth
Across our businesses, our life-changing innovations are driving the future of healthcare, including:

  • FreeStyle Libre, our world-leading‡ glucose monitoring system, continues to see unprecedented demand with 62% organic growth in the quarter (59% reported). With FreeStyle Libre users roughly doubling each year, the device has helped make it much easier for people living with diabetes to monitor their glucose levels – and it’s priced for broad adoption.
  • MitraClip, our market-leading device for the treatment of mitral regurgitation, received an expanded indication for use in people with significant or severe secondary mitral regurgitation to help treat even more people. And earlier this month, we initiated a trial to study MitraClip as an option for moderate surgical risk patients, potentially expanding the patient population even further.
  • Alinity, our family of advanced diagnostic testing technologies, achieved continued strong adoption in the U.S. and internationally, which drove double-digit, above-market organic growth globally in the quarter for Core Laboratory Diagnostics.

For full financials, you can read our press release, or take a look at some additional materials below:

Abbott's Chairman and CEO Miles D. White shared his views on fourth-quarter performance:

Learn more about Abbott's fourth-quarter 2019 results:

Download a summary of Abbott’s earnings highlights here.

Abbott Posts Strong 2019 Results

For more information on Abbott's earnings results, see the news release.

*Organic sales growth excludes the results for a non-core business within U.S. Adult Nutrition during the first nine months of 2018 as this business was discontinued during the third quarter 2018; and excludes the impact of foreign exchange. For full financial data and reconciliation of non-GAAP measures, please see our press release dated Jan. 22, 2020, available at www.abbottinvestor.com.

† Abbott has not provided the GAAP financial measure for organic sales growth on a forward-looking basis because the company is unable to predict the impact of foreign exchange due to the unpredictability of future changes in foreign exchange rates, which could significantly impact reported sales growth.

‡ Data on file, Abbott Diabetes Care. Data based on the number of users worldwide for the FreeStyle Libre system compared to the number of users for other leading personal use, sensor-based glucose monitoring systems.