ABT

Abbott Laboratories ABT used its third-quarter 2026 earnings call to outline a major portfolio restructuring, announcing plans to separate its Nutrition business into an independent publicly traded company. Management also addressed reduced revenue growth expectations, competitive pressures in diabetes care and upcoming product launches. The discussion emphasized long-term portfolio positioning alongside near-term execution challenges. Chairman and CEO Robert Ford said the planned separation reflects increasingly different investment requirements, customer bases and growth profiles across Abbott's businesses. Nutrition has become more influenced by consumer preferences, wellness trends and retail execution. The proposed company generates approximately $8.5 billion in annual sales and includes brands such as Similac, Ensure and PediaSure. Daniel Salvadori will lead the independent business. CFO Philip Boudreau expects the transaction to be completed by the end of 2027, subject to approvals. Excluding Nutrition's current financial profile, Abbott expects sales growth to accelerate by 50-100 basis points and operating margin to increase approximately 100 basis points. Abbott now projects approximately 6% comparable sales growth for 2026. Adjusted earnings guidance was narrowed to $5.50-$5.55 per share, while fourth-quarter adjusted EPS is projected at $1.62-$1.67. ABT's quarterly adjusted EPS of $1.42 missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.43. Third-quarter revenues came in at $13.01 billion, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $12.97 billion. Abbott Laboratories price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Abbott Laboratories Quote During questioning from Wells Fargo, Ford attributed the revised revenue outlook primarily to electrophysiology and diabetes care. He described the pressures as temporary rather than permanent changes in underlying growth potential. Electrophysiology delivered 15.5% comparable growth, supported by adoption of the Volt pulsed field ablation catheter. Ford highlighted accelerating U.S. demand following its full market release in August. However, weaker left atrial appendage closure demand has offset some ablation momentum. Ford expects approximately 20% electrophysiology growth in the fourth quarter compared with an earlier expectation near 25%. Abbott anticipates additional momentum from TactiFlex Duo and Volt's planned Japanese launch. Ford also expects the newer Amulet 360 device to help address existing market challenges. Ford acknowledged that continuous glucose monitoring growth faces greater international pricing competition and slower penetration among patients with type 2 diabetes without broader reimbursement coverage. Management expects diabetes growth in the low-to-mid-single-digit range over the next several quarters. Abbott plans selective international pricing adjustments while pursuing longer-term customer contracts and protecting market share. During Citigroup's questioning, Ford declined to forecast when Medicare reimbursement might expand to non-insulin-using type 2 patients. He emphasized that such an expansion is not currently factored into expectations. Libre Duo's planned December launch and improved U.S. formulary coverage offer additional growth opportunities. Cancer Diagnostics posted 13.8% comparable sales growth, supported by Cologuard and precision oncology activities. Responding to Jefferies, Ford explained that a July cybersecurity incident disrupted customer connectivity and temporarily reduced growth by approximately one percentage point. He reported recovery after affected systems resumed operations. Ford also highlighted the recently introduced SimpleScreen blood-based colorectal cancer test. While acknowledging its broader screening potential, he maintained that stool-based testing offers stronger early-detection performance. Management continues advancing personalized cancer diagnostics and integration efforts following the Exact Sciences acquisition. Ford said research and development spending will exceed $3 billion in 2026, with further investment planned for 2027. Priorities include leadless pacing, structural heart technologies, intravascular lithotripsy and additional biosensor applications. During Citigroup's questions, Ford emphasized that the Nutrition separation would not restrict Abbott's acquisition strategy. Near-term transactions will primarily involve smaller complementary acquisitions. Boudreau reported an adjusted gross margin of 57.2%, up 140 basis points year over year. Management continues pursuing operational efficiencies alongside innovation investment. Ford expects sales growth to accelerate in 2027 but indicated that initial guidance will take a more conservative approach. Formal projections will follow in January. Management's overall message combined confidence in the product pipeline with caution surrounding pricing, reimbursement and launch timing. The Nutrition separation remains central to Abbott's longer-term strategic direction. Abbott currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), indicating favorable near-term earnings estimate revision characteristics. Its Value, Growth and VGM Scores are C, with a Momentum Score of D. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. These scores indicate moderate value and growth characteristics but weaker price momentum. The combination offers a mixed assessment despite the favorable Zacks Rank. The company's ranking may change as analysts revise earnings estimates following the third-quarter results. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Abbott Laboratories (ABT) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Abbott Laboratories came into this Q3 2026 report with a rich valuation and a reputation as a dependable healthcare compounder, yet the stock had slipped over the last month. Today, the shares are only up about 0.8% despite comparable sales growth of roughly 7% and adjusted earnings per share of US$1.42 that matched the script management had been setting. That muted price reaction sits awkwardly against a business posting higher gross and operating margins, and unveiling a plan to spin off the US$8.5b Nutrition unit. The gap between that modest one day bounce and the scale of what Abbott is reshaping will be the core tension for investors reading these results. Like the mix of margin resilience and a Nutrition spin off at Abbott Laboratories but unsure the stock's current valuation gives you enough upside for the risk you take on Q3 steadiness alone? Compare this setup with a curated screener of companies that pair premium pricing with sturdier downside protection in our list of solid balance sheet and fundamentals stocks (25 results) - Total Revenue (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): US$13,013m vs. US$11,369m (up about 14.5%) - Net Income, Excl. Extra Items (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): US$920m vs. US$1,644m (down about 44.1%) - Basic EPS (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): US$0.53 vs. US$0.94 (down about 43.9%) - Adjusted Gross Margin (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025): 57.2% vs. 55.8% (up about 1.4 percentage points) Tired of scrolling through dense earnings tables and still feeling unsure what really changed at Abbott Laboratories this quarter? See the full financial picture, with a clear visual view of its valuation setup, in the interactive company report for Abbott Laboratories. For the bullish story on Abbott Laboratories, the key question is whether the pipeline is actually turning into durable device and diagnostics momentum. "The main thing that has to go right is that Abbott Laboratories continues to convert its medical technology pipeline in areas like continuous glucose monitoring, electrophysiology and cancer diagnostics into sustained sales growth and margin expansion, while managing Nutrition legal and regulatory risks." Q3 points in the right direction. Cancer diagnostics rose 14% with a new blood based CRC test launched, electrophysiology delivered mid to high teens growth helped by Volt and TactiFlex Duo approvals, and CGM posted 8% growth with Libre Duo cleared ahead of a December launch, while adjusted gross margin reached 57.2%. The bear side argues that legal fallout and capital needs could choke the margin rebuild investors are banking on at Abbott Laboratories. "The large infant formula settlements of about US$670 million for NEC litigation and US$385 million related to the 2022 Sturgis recall show that Abbott Laboratories still carries legal and regulatory exposure in Nutrition, and further actions or follow on claims could keep legal costs elevated and hold back net margins and earnings." Those settlements are now booked, and Q3 adjusted operating margin reached 23.4%, helped by higher gross margin. Yet management confirmed Nutrition liabilities will follow the spin, legal resolution is not required before separation, and lower full year revenue guidance plus a 44.1% decline in net income excluding extra items underline that earnings sensitivity to Nutrition and investment spend remains visible. One Narrative has put a figure on that disagreement. → See the Narrative with its higher Fair Value, assumptions and all. Abbott Laboratories recently reported earnings that highlight how solid results and modest share moves can diverge. The real opportunity may lie in finding stocks that appear undervalued before sentiment aligns with underlying business performance. - Company 1 - 41% below our estimate - targets higher margin film and installation work while expanding owned manufacturing and supply capabilities. - Company 2 - 40% below our estimate - leans into specialty deposit verticals and a refreshed payments platform to translate technology spend into fee income. - Company 3 - 46% below our estimate - integrates a newly acquired regional bank to capture cost savings and deepen access to stable, low cost funding. Those are three of them. See every one of the 33 undervalued companies on it → This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include ABT. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

Major U.S. indexes closed higher Wednesday, led by big gains for tech stocks on another busy day of earnings reports. The tech-focused Nasdaq, blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, and benchmark S&P 500 ended up 1.1%, 0.7%, and 0.6%, respectively. Wednesday marked the third straight day of gains for the S&P 500. SpaceX (SPCX) shares soared nearly 8% to lead the Nasdaq 100 Wednesday, a day after the space, AI, and social media company announced that it posted its first-ever quarterly profit and CEO Elon Musk said that the board and Tesla's formed committees to discuss a merger. Shares of Tesla (TSLA) rose almost 3.5% ahead of its results after markets closed. (Read our tech earnings blog here.) In other post-earnings moves, AT&T (T) retreated 6.5% to pace S&P 500 decliners, Netflix (NFLX) shares fell more than 5%, Abbott Laboratories (ABT) declined 2%, and Philip Morris International (PM) pulled back 1.5%. Super Micro Computer (SMCI) shares surged 9%, United Airlines (UAL) jumped 4%, and Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) gained 1%. Shares of Meta Platforms (META) and International Business Machines (IBM) rose less than 1% and about 4%, respectively, ahead of their results after the markets closed. AI-tied stocks rose after slipping yesterday. Roundhill's Memory ETF (DRAM) was up 3%, while the broader iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) advanced 2%. The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS), which tracks the Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech stocks, was about 1% higher, aided by Tesla's advance and a 2.5% rise in Nvidia (NVDA) shares. Oil prices, which declined yesterday on unconfirmed reports that mediators were trying to bring the U.S. and Iran to discuss an end to the Middle East conflict, were little changed Wednesday. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 0.4% to $97.50 a barrel around 4 p.m. ET. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were 0.5% higher at $109.40. The 10-year Treasury yield was near 5.13% in late-afternoon trading, up one basis point from Tuesday's close. The price of bitcoin was around $84,500, up from overnight lows around $82,400. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, was near flat at 101.69. Gold futures rose 0.1% to $4,145 an ounce. Go beyond the day's market moves with Investopedia's Value Add, where you'll find sharp analysis, investing ideas, and practical guidance on what today's biggest financial stories could mean for your money. Explore Value Add and subscribe on Substack. Read the original article on Investopedia

Abbott ABT reported third-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $1.42, up 9.2% year over year. The figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.7%. Sales increased 14.5% year over year to $13.01 billion, surpassing the consensus mark by 0.3%. Comparable sales rose 7%, supported by growth across all four operating segments. Following the earnings announcement, ABT stock fell 3.6% in pre-market trading today. Medical Devices sales increased 6.9% year over year on a reported basis to $5.83 billion. Comparable sales advanced 7.8%, reflecting growth across several cardiovascular and diabetes-care businesses. Electrophysiology sales climbed 15.5% on a comparable basis, while Rhythm Management and Heart Failure advanced 10% and 6%, respectively. Diabetes Care sales grew 6.7%, supported by a 7.7% increase in continuous glucose monitor (CGM) sales. Vascular sales improved 5.7%, while Structural Heart rose 6.9%. Neuromodulation sales declined 1.1%. Abbott Laboratories price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Abbott Laboratories Quote Diagnostics sales surged 46.7% year over year on a reported basis to $3.31 billion, reflecting contributions from the March 2026 acquisition of Exact Sciences. Comparable sales increased 6.4%. Cancer Diagnostics sales totaled $968 million and grew 13.8% on a comparable basis. Performance benefited from Cologuard growth and contributions from precision oncology and international operations. Core Laboratory Diagnostics sales increased 5.4%, driven by balanced growth across the United States, Europe, Japan and Latin America. Rapid and Molecular Diagnostics sales improved 0.9% on a comparable basis, supported by modest growth in both domestic and international markets. Nutrition sales increased 5.1% year over year on a reported basis to $2.26 billion. Comparable sales rose 4.9%, reflecting broad-based improvement across the portfolio. Pediatric Nutrition sales advanced 8.7% on a comparable basis, while Adult Nutrition increased 1.8%. U.S. Nutrition sales climbed 7.9%, supported by 11% growth in domestic Pediatric Nutrition. International Nutrition sales rose 2.8% on a comparable basis. Total Nutrition revenues also improved sequentially by $118 million from the second quarter of 2026. Established Pharmaceuticals sales increased 6.8% year over year on a reported basis to $1.61 billion. Comparable sales grew 8.4%, reflecting continued expansion across international markets. Key Emerging Markets sales advanced 10.9% on a comparable basis, supported by double-digit growth in India and several Latin American and Asia-Pacific markets. Sales in other markets increased 1.6% on a comparable basis. Key Emerging Markets generated $1.20 billion in quarterly revenues, while other markets contributed $419 million. In the third quarter, adjusted gross profit increased 17.4% year over year to $7.45 billion. The adjusted gross margin expanded approximately 143 basis points (bps) to 57.2%. Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses increased 16.7% year over year to $3.51 billion. Adjusted research and development expenses grew 22.2% to $892 million. Adjusted operating profit rose 16.9% to $3.05 billion, while the adjusted operating margin expanded approximately 49 bps to 23.4%. Abbott tightened its full-year 2026 adjusted earnings guidance to $5.50-$5.55 per share, reaffirming the midpoint of its previous $5.45-$5.60 range. The Zacks Consensus Estimate currently stands at $5.53 per share. The company now projects approximately 6% comparable sales growth for 2026 compared with its previous guidance of 6.5%-7.5%. For the fourth quarter, management expects adjusted EPS of $1.62-$1.67. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same stands at $1.65. Abbott exited the third quarter of 2026 with an earnings miss, while revenues surpassed expectations. Within Diagnostics, Core Laboratory results benefited from balanced growth across the United States, Europe, Japan and Latin America. Cancer Diagnostics gained from Cologuard growth and contributions from precision oncology and international operations. Strong performance in Electrophysiology and Rhythm Management supported Medical Devices results. The expansion of the adjusted gross margin and recovery in Nutrition sales are also encouraging. Meanwhile, higher operating expenses and a reduction in the full-year comparable sales growth outlook remain concerns. Abbott also highlighted several product developments. The company secured FDA approval for Libre Duo, a dual glucose-ketone wearable sensor, and TactiFlex Duo, an ablation catheter for treating atrial fibrillation. It also received CE Mark approval for Amulet 360, launched the SimpleScreen CRC blood-based colorectal cancer screening test and introduced Similac 360 Total Care Made With Whole Milk in the United States. Abbott currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are Phibro Animal Health PAHC, Agilent Technologies A and Globus Medical GMED. Phibro Animal Health, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS of 85 cents, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 18.06%. Revenues of $396.7 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8.35%. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. PAHC has an earnings yield of 8.9% compared with the industry's 2.8%. The company beat earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 18.36%. Agilent Technologies,carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, posted third-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS of $1.62, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9.5%. Revenues of $1.88 billion topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.1%. A has an earnings yield of 3.7% compared with the industry's 2.8%. The company's earnings outpaced estimates in two of the trailing four quarters, broke even once and missed on another one, the average surprise being 3.8%. Globus Medical,carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, posted second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $1.34, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 19.6%. Revenues of $789.6 million outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.4%. GMED has an estimated earnings yield of 6.6% against the industry's 2.3% decline. The company's earnings outpaced estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 27.9%. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Abbott Laboratories (ABT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Agilent Technologies, Inc. (A) : Free Stock Analysis Report Globus Medical, Inc. (GMED) : Free Stock Analysis Report Phibro Animal Health Corporation (PAHC) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Abbott (ABT) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.42 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.43 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.3 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -0.70%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs would post earnings of $1.28 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.31, delivering a surprise of +2.34%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. Abbott, which belongs to the Zacks Medical - Products industry, posted revenues of $13.01 billion for the quarter ended September 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.30%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $11.37 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Abbott shares have lost about 18.2% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 12.7%. While Abbott has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Abbott was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $1.65 on $13.45 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $5.53 on $50.3 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Medical - Products is currently in the bottom 36% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Another stock from the same industry, Perrigo (PRGO), has yet to report results for the quarter ended September 2026. This drug company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.57 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -28.8%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Perrigo's revenues are expected to be $994.67 million, down 4.7% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Abbott Laboratories (ABT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Perrigo Company plc (PRGO) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Abbott Laboratories will release its third-quarter earnings report before the opening bell on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Analysts expect the company to report quarterly earnings of $1.41 per share, up from $1.30 per share in the year-ago period. The consensus estimate for ABT's quarterly revenue is $12.99 billion. It reported $11.37 billion last year, according to Benzinga Pro. On Oct. 16, TD Cowen analyst Joshua Jennings reiterated a Buy rating on Abbott Laboratories and maintained a $135 price target. Don't Miss: - Think Your 'Safe' Stocks Protect You? You're Ignoring the Real Growth Triggers — Here's What to Add Now - Caught With Nothing Saved for Retirement? These 5 Game‑Changing Tips Could Still Save You With the recent buzz around Abbott, some investors may be eyeing potential gains from the company's dividends too. As of now, Abbott has an annual dividend yield of 2.42%, which is a quarterly dividend amount of 63 cents per share ($2.52 a year).   So, how can investors use its dividend yield to pocket a regular $500 monthly? To earn $500 per month or $6,000 annually from dividends alone, you would need an investment of approximately $247,767 or around 2,381 shares. For a more modest $100 per month or $1,200 per year, you would need $49,533 or around 476 shares. To calculate: Divide the desired annual income ($6,000 or $1,200) by the dividend ($2.52 in this case). So, $6,000 / $2.52 = 2,381 shares ($500 per month), and $1,200 / $2.52 = 476 shares ($100 per month). Trending: Think you're saving enough for your kids? You might be dangerously off — see why Note that dividend yield can change on a rolling basis, as the dividend payment and the stock price both fluctuate over time. How that works: The dividend yield is computed by dividing the annual dividend payment by the stock's current price. For example, if a stock pays an annual dividend of $2 and is currently priced at $50, the dividend yield would be 4% ($2/$50). However, if the stock price increases to $60, the dividend yield drops to 3.33% ($2/$60). Conversely, if the stock price falls to $40, the dividend yield rises to 5% ($2/$40). Similarly, changes in the dividend payment can impact the yield. If a company increases its dividend, the yield will also increase, provided the stock price stays the same. Conversely, if the dividend payment decreases, so will the yield. See Also: Still Learning the Market? These 50 Must-Know Terms Can Help You Catch Up Fast Photo via Shutterstock Read Next: A single bad hire can set a startup back years. Here are the 5 hires founders most often misjudge — and why Building a resilient portfolio means thinking beyond a single asset or market trend. Economic cycles shift, sectors rise and fall, and no one investment performs well in every environment. That's why many investors look to diversify with platforms that provide access to real estate, fixed-income opportunities, precious metals, and even self-directed retirement accounts. By spreading exposure across multiple asset classes, it becomes easier to manage risk, capture steady returns, and create long-term wealth that isn't tied to the fortunes of just one company or industry. For accredited investors looking beyond stocks and bonds, EquityMultiple provides access to vetted commercial real estate deals starting at $5,000, with only ~5% of opportunities passing their due diligence process. Backed by Jeff Bezos, Arrived Homes makes real estate investing accessible with a low barrier to entry. Investors can buy fractional shares of single-family rentals and vacation homes starting with as little as $100. This allows everyday investors to diversify into real estate, collect rental income, and build long-term wealth without needing to manage properties directly. Entertainment franchises can become valuable long-term assets when they successfully expand across multiple platforms. Skybound Entertainment, the company behind The Walking Dead and Invincible, develops original intellectual property that spans comics, television, film, video games, merchandise, and licensing. With more than 250 IPs in its portfolio and a strategy focused on retaining franchise rights while scaling successful stories across media, Skybound offers investors exposure to the growing entertainment and creator economy through a private company rather than traditional public market investments. As artificial intelligence drives a surge in electricity demand, reliable power generation is becoming a critical part of the technology ecosystem. American PowerGen is developing natural gas-fired power plants in Texas, a fast-growing market fueled by AI data centers, manufacturing expansion, and population growth. By advancing projects through permitting, fuel supply, and grid interconnection, the company is positioning itself to help meet rising energy needs while offering investors exposure to the infrastructure supporting the next wave of AI and industrial growth. As AI coding tools take on more of the work traditionally done by developers, companies are facing new challenges around code quality, context and the rising cost of AI-powered development. Bito is building software designed to help AI coding agents better understand complex codebases while helping companies control AI development costs. Founded by former PubMatic executives, Bito has raised more than $10 million from institutional and individual investors and is now raising additional capital through a Wefunder offering, giving investors an opportunity to invest in a company targeting an emerging need within the rapidly expanding AI software market. For accredited investors looking beyond stocks and traditional real estate opportunities, DLP Capital provides access to private real estate strategies focused on workforce housing — homes for essential workers such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers. With more than $5.5 billion in assets under management and a community of 4,000+ accredited investors, DLP Capital gives investors access to real estate strategies designed around the growing need for housing that working Americans can actually afford. Farmland has historically held its value through market volatility and delivered returns uncorrelated to stocks and bonds. For accredited investors, FarmTogether offers direct access to high-quality U.S. farmland starting at $15,000 — fully managed, with no landlord headaches. Private real estate and private credit can add income and stability to a stock-heavy portfolio. Fundrise offers access to diversified private real estate and credit strategies through an easy-to-use platform, with professionally managed portfolios designed to generate passive income and long-term growth. © 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wed, Oct. 21, 2026 - Vice President, Investor Relations - Mike Comilla - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Robert Ford - Executive Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer - Phil Boudreau Operator: Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Abbott's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be able to listen only until the question and answer portion of this call. During the question and answer session, you will be able to ask your question by pressing the star 11 keys on your touchtone phone. This call is being recorded by Abbott. With the exception of any participant's questions asked during the question and answer session, the entire call, including the question and answer session, is material copyrighted by Abbott. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without Abbott's express written permission. I would now like to introduce Mr. Mike Comilla, Vice President, Investor Relations. Mike Comilla: Good morning, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Robert Ford, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Phil Boudreau, Executive Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer. Robert and Phil will provide opening remarks. Following their comments, we'll take your questions. Before we get started, some statements made today may be forward-looking for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Abbott cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Economic, competitive, governmental, technological, and other factors that may affect Abbott's operations are discussed in Item 1A, Risk Factors, to our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. Abbott undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law. On today's conference call, as in the past, non-GAAP financial measures will be used to help investors understand Abbott's ongoing business performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are reconciled with the comparable GAAP financial measures in our earnings news release and regulatory filings from today, which are available on our website at abbott.com. Note that Abbott has not provided the related GAAP financial measures on a forward-looking basis for the non-GAAP financial measures for which it is providing guidance because the company is unable to predict with reasonable certainty, and without unreasonable effort, the timing and impact of certain items which could significantly impact Abbott's results in accordance with GAAP. Unless otherwise noted, our commentary on sales growth refers to comparable sales growth. Our definition of comparable sales growth can be found on page 2 of our press release issued earlier today, and a reconciliation table containing the data needed to calculate comparable sales growth can be found on pages 16 and 17. With that, I will now turn the call over to Robert. Robert Ford: Thanks, Mike. Today marks an important milestone in Abbott's history. Along with reporting our third quarter results, we announced our intention to separate our nutrition business into an independent, publicly traded company. This decision follows a comprehensive strategic review and reflects our strong belief that both Abbott and the nutrition business can create greater value and achieve their maximum potential as independent organizations. Abbott entered the nutrition business more than 60 years ago. Since that time, we built a strong foundation anchored by a talented global organization, iconic brands, scale, and established market leadership positions across the pediatric and adult nutrition categories. The nutrition market has evolved over time, with the pace of change accelerating significantly in recent years. What was once predominantly viewed as a healthcare market, almost exclusively shaped by healthcare professionals, has increasingly become a market shaped by changing consumer preferences, wellness trends, and retail execution. While this market evolution is not inherently positive or negative, it has fundamentally changed the environment in which we operate. To best position our nutrition business for maximum long-term success, we must evolve and adapt accordingly. At the same time, Abbott has strategically repositioned its portfolio over the past decade into attractive, high growth markets that require sustained investment to drive innovation and support long-term growth. We believe both businesses will be better positioned for the future as independent organizations, each with a distinct identity, reflecting their different customer bases, growth profiles, investment requirements, and innovation cycles. This separation will enable both companies to sharpen strategic and operational focus, direct resources more effectively, and enhance commercial and R&D effectiveness. As an independent company, nutrition will be uniquely positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for healthy nutrition as consumers increasingly recognize the importance of metabolic health and the role healthy nutrition plays in disease prevention and overall wellness. The new nutrition company will be created from a position of strength. The team has done an exceptional job building a balanced growth model supported by sustainable mix of volume and price. The portfolio includes several iconic brands, including Similac, PediaSure, Ensure, Glucerna, and Pedialyte, which have market-leading positions across the pediatric and adult nutrition categories. With approximately $8.5 billion in annual sales, 16,000 employees, and 14 manufacturing sites, this will be the largest globally scaled pure-play company in the healthy nutrition market. Given its scale and financial profile, we would expect this new company to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500. I'm pleased to share that Daniel Salvadori, Executive Vice President and Group President of Established Pharmaceuticals and Nutrition Products, will become Chief Executive Officer of the new nutrition company. Daniel joined Abbott in 2014 as Senior Vice President in our Established Pharmaceuticals business for Latin America and also served as Executive Vice President of Nutrition Products for 4 years before being appointed to his current position in 2021. Throughout his career at Abbott, Daniel has demonstrated outstanding strategic insight and operational excellence. His broad international experience and proven track record of delivering results as a business operator make him exceptionally well-suited for this role, and I'm confident he will be a tremendous success. Daniel will be joined by an experienced leadership team with deep industry experience. This is a battle-tested team that has demonstrated exceptional resilience and dedication while navigating a dynamic and evolving operating environment. Following the separation, Abbott will remain one of the largest, most diversified and fastest-growing healthcare companies in the world. The Abbott portfolio will consist of even stronger mix of higher growth, higher margin businesses powered by technology and innovation. As a result, we expect Abbott's sales growth to accelerate and margin profiles to expand. While the Abbott portfolio will evolve, maintaining balance across products, payers, and geographies will remain a key strength and source of resilience for the company. We built this portfolio to hold market-leading positions in 3 of the most attractive areas of healthcare: MedTech, diagnostics, and Established Pharmaceuticals. The portfolio was also intentionally built to align with durable healthcare trends, including an aging population, increasing prevalence of chronic disease, and a growing demand for earlier diagnosis and more personalized treatment. With market-leading positions, an industry-leading pipeline, and a proven ability to consistently generate strong earnings growth and cash flow, Abbott is exceptionally well-positioned to deliver sustainable growth and create long-term shareholder value in the years ahead. I could not be more excited about this future. I have tremendous confidence in Abbott's future as an innovation-driven healthcare company, and I am also confident in the opportunities that lie ahead for the new nutrition company. Most importantly, this creates 2 stronger organizations that will both continue to fulfill our mission of helping people live better lives. We look forward to sharing updates on our progress as we move through the separation process. I will now review the third quarter results before I turn the call over to Phil. Sales grew 7% in the third quarter, and earnings per share grew 9%, representing an acceleration in growth on both top and bottom lines compared to our results in the first half of the year. Turning to diagnostics, where sales grew 6.5%, driven by performance in our core laboratory and cancer diagnostic businesses. Core lab sales grew 5.5%, driven by strong performance in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Latin America. On our earnings call in July, I highlighted that test volume data, sourced directly from thousands of instruments located across the U.S. and around the world, showed a pattern of strong and stable demand. We view this as a positive indicator of the underlying demand for healthcare more broadly. During the third quarter, our testing data continued to support that view, with testing demand remaining healthy and at durable levels. In cancer diagnostics, sales growth of 14% was driven by Cologuard and contributions to growth from our precision oncology and international businesses. In September, we launched our first blood-based colorectal cancer screening test. As the only company to offer both stool-based and blood-based screening options, we are expanding the options available to healthcare providers and patients to help achieve the goal of getting more people screened. Turning to nutrition, sales grew 5%, reflecting broad-based growth across all 4 categories: U.S. pediatric, international pediatric, U.S. adult, and international adult. As I mentioned earlier, the team has done an exceptional job executing a more balanced growth strategy, achieving a more sustainable mix of volume and price-driven growth. In pediatric nutrition, sales grew 9%, led by growth of 11% in the U.S. As I noted last quarter, the strong performance in the U.S. includes the benefit from WIC contract wins secured earlier this year, which helped Abbott regain its market leadership position in both the WIC and non-WIC segments. In adult nutrition, sales increased 2%, driven by growth of 3.5% in the U.S. as retail consumption data continues to trend in a positive direction. We also continue to deliver strong growth on a sequential basis, with worldwide nutrition sales increasing more than $100 million compared to the second quarter. Finally, we continue to make good progress advancing our innovation pipeline. During the quarter, we launched a new version of the Similac infant formula made with whole milk. This new product is the first and only commercially sterile, ready-to-feed liquid infant formula made with whole milk available in the United States. Turning to EPD, where sales increased 8.5% in the quarter. Our broad portfolio of prescription and over-the-counter medicines tailored to address local healthcare needs continues to drive strong growth across emerging markets. Growth in the quarter was broad-based across geographies and therapeutic areas, and this included double-digit growth in several countries across Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, highlighting the strong and durable demand that has long been a hallmark of this business. I will wrap up with medical devices, where sales grew 8%. Growth was well-balanced across the portfolio, led by double-digit growth in electrophysiology and rhythm management. In electrophysiology, our third quarter results reflect the early beginning of our growth acceleration phase. Growth in the quarter was mid-teens or high teens when excluding LAA. In the U.S., growth was in the high teens and exceeded 20%, excluding LAA. This performance was driven by increasing adoption of our new Volt PFA catheter, with momentum accelerating in September following the transition to a full U.S. market release in mid-August. International growth also accelerated as we continue to capture market share in Europe, driven by increasing uptake of our new PFA catheters and growth in other categories across our broad portfolio. In September, we received FDA approval earlier than expected for our TactiFlex Duo catheter. This catheter enables physicians to seamlessly switch between using RF and PFA energy during a procedure. Given physicians' familiarity with the TactiFlex platform, we expect to execute a broad U.S. launch starting in the fourth quarter. In the third quarter, we also received CE Mark for our new Amulet 360 left atrial appendage device, designed to help reduce the risk of stroke in patients with AFib. We look forward to bringing this new technology to the U.S. In rhythm management, sales grew 10%, driven by increased adoption of AVEIR across both single and dual-chamber segments of the pacemaker market. This expanding use of AVEIR is occurring in both the U.S. and international markets. In diabetes care, continuous glucose monitoring sales grew 8% in the quarter. In August, we received FDA approval for Libre Duo, the world's first dual glucose ketone biowearable sensor. This marks the first time that people with diabetes will be able to monitor ketones without the need for traditional blood or urine tests, and we expect to launch this new sensor in the U.S. in December. In summary, we delivered an acceleration in growth on both top and bottom lines. Innovation continues to be a key differentiator for Abbott, highlighted by multiple new product approvals and launches that further strengthen our ability to deliver sustainable growth in the years ahead. We took an important strategic step towards shaping our future through the planned creation of a new market-leading nutrition company. I will now turn over the call to Phil. Philip Boudreau: Thanks, Robert. Let me begin my remarks with an overview of some of the key aspects of our planning process for the separation. The new nutrition company will become a publicly traded company through a planned tax-free distribution to Abbott shareholders. Upon completion of the separation, Abbott shareholders will own shares of both Abbott and the new nutrition company, enabling our shareholders to participate in the value creation opportunities of both businesses. The final share distribution ratio will be communicated prior to the separation, which we anticipate completing by the end of next year, subject to the required approvals. We expect to incur separation-related costs as we progress through the separation process. These costs will be treated as specified items and excluded from adjusted earnings. As a result, we do not expect the separation to have an impact on we plan to provide in January. As we prepare for the separation, we intend to establish capital structures that ensure both companies have a strong financial foundation. This includes ensuring adequate capital to support long-term growth objectives and capital allocation priorities while maintaining strong investment-grade credit ratings for both companies. As part of that process, we are planning for the new company to raise debt, with a portion of the proceeds to be distributed to Abbott. The amount of debt to be raised and the amount to be distributed to Abbott will be determined at a later date. Finally, we expect that both Abbott and the new nutrition company will pay a dividend that, when combined, will equal Abbott's dividend at the time of the separation. Following the separation, we expect Abbott's financial profile to reflect an acceleration in the sales growth and increased profitability. Excluding the current profile of the nutrition business from the current profile of the Abbott portfolio, we would expect sales growth to accelerate by 50 to 100 basis points, gross margin as a percent of sales to increase by more than 200 basis points, and an operating margin as a percent of sales to increase by approximately 100 basis points. Now turning to our third quarter results. Sales increased 7% on a comparable basis, and adjusted EPS of $1.42 was in line with our guidance and the consensus estimate. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable year-over-year impact of 0.4% on third quarter sales, which was a slight improvement compared to our expectations at the time of our earnings call in July. Regarding other aspects of the P&L, the adjusted gross margin profile was 57.2% of sales, representing an increase of 140 basis points compared to the prior year. The improvement in gross margin was broad-based, reflecting favorable business mix within the legacy Abbott portfolio and from the addition of Exact Sciences, as well as the continued operational improvements and disciplined execution of our margin expansion initiatives. Adjusted R&D was 6.9% of sales, and adjusted SG&A was 26.9% of sales. Our operating margin of 23.4% expanded by 40 basis points compared to the prior year. Based on current rates, we expect exchange to have a negative impact of approximately 1% on fourth quarter sales. For the fourth quarter, we forecast adjusted earnings per share of $1.62 to $1.67. With that, we will now open the call for questions. Operator: Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising you that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. For optimal sound quality, we kindly ask that you please use your handset instead of your speakerphone when asking your question. Again, that is star one to ask a question. Please stand by while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question will come from Robert Marcus from JPMorgan. Your line is open. Robert Marcus: Great. Good morning, and thanks for taking the questions. I am sure others will ask on the business and the guide, but Robert, given the news this morning on nutrition, I wanted to start with that to make sure we address it. Maybe you could run through the strategic rationale, why now, why spin versus sell, and any other important points you want to highlight for us. Thanks a lot. Robert Ford: Sure, Robbie. I actually think that's the right question to start off with, to be quite honest. It's a pretty big announcement for us, and we've gone through a lot of work to be able to make this announcement today. I've seen a lot of notes be written about the portfolio, and all of those notes are from some of the parts, and growth rates, and impact to growth rates, and margin profiles, and I think Phil mentioned some of those. Those are all, I would say, good outputs of a decision like this. I think it really starts with a very simple, as I laid it out, which is there's a huge opportunity that I think is building in this market, in this segment. We're seeing a shift towards a much more healthy nutrition behavior from consumers, not just in this country, but around the world. You're seeing a lot of traditional food companies try to reposition their portfolios, moving away from ultra-processed to try and look at their portfolios, and ultimately try and build portfolios that try to mimic actually the portfolio that we actually have today. I just think that strategically, over the next decade, there's going to be a lot of segments in this nutrition business that we've built that are going to be very differentiated and high growth. If you look at nutrition's portfolio, its position today, the capabilities that it has, it is destined to be a market leader and a market shaper of that entire segment that's going to have this accelerating growth here. They are going to need to adapt, as I said in my comment. They are going to need to evolve, and ultimately, they are going to need to invest in sales and marketing, even maybe look at tuck-in M&A from their perspective to accelerate their growth rates and all of that. We just came to the conclusion that this was too exciting of an opportunity, and we just believe that all the things that they would need to do, they'd probably be able to do it faster and more efficiently and effectively as an independent company. It really just comes down to that. Yeah, there's, I would say, the ancillary effects of those decisions, Robbie. I think you've done a good analysis on that in terms of what that does to our growth rates and all of that. I think it really comes down to really the driver of the decision is this is going to be an exciting space. As a result, we think that the nutrition business is going to be able to capitalize better on that by being an independent company. From a financial asset perspective, as we look at the spin, I think this is going to be a very unique asset. If you benchmark it versus its category peers, and not necessarily versus the MedTech peers that they're currently part of right now, it'll be a very differentiated asset, whether you think about growth mix, the scientific capabilities it has, its growth prospects. It's going to be, as I said, the only truly global scaled pure play in this kind of healthy nutrition. I think this is going to be a very distinct asset. To your question on why now. Listen, we've got a history of shaping the company. I think that's one of the hallmarks of Abbott, and that's I think why we're still relevant today after 138 years, is that we will look at shaping the portfolio to align to where we see the market trending and where we see clinical needs and problems to be solved occurring. But as you do that, you also need to be thinking about sequencing. I think sequencing here is a key element as you think about shaping the portfolio. There are very different elements of shaping. But for me, from an operational standpoint, I just think you need to be mindful of organizational bandwidth and ability for the organization here to absorb the moves. So, we have an order of events in mind of how we're thinking about things. For example, if you go back a couple of years, we identified precision diagnostics as the next area that we wanted to be a part of. So we announced our acquisition of Exact Sciences last year. The integration is going great. Actually, I think we've done a lot of heavy lifting in these first 6 months, have got a lot done. I'm sure we'll talk about that too. So I just think that now is the right time to start that process of creating the new company, it's coming from a position of strength, as I said in my comment. I think I read a story that just came out, a headline that just came out on Barron's, who got it totally wrong. I'm just going to say it. It's coming out of a position of strength. And we've got a very sustainable growth model. If you look at the volume growth that Nutrition had this quarter and what we're projecting to have in the next few quarters, it is significantly higher than what its peer set is, given the portfolio that we've built and the segments that we're in. So the business has returned to growth. The pipeline is very healthy. We're bringing innovations to the market. There's going to be a lot of interesting innovation over the next kind of 12 months here. Got strong brands, experienced and very capable team. As I said in my comment, I specifically chose the term battle tested because that's kind of what it felt like over the last 4 or 5 years. And if I had to pick a team to go into battle with in this nutrition space, I'd pick that team. I think they've navigated very well everything that they've done and all the environment that they've operated in. So I think this is just a unique opportunity for us and for the Nutrition business. And I think you had a question on spin versus sell. Yeah, we just thought that this was, after we went through the analysis, after you make a decision that it's probably going to operate better as an independent company, what's the right mechanism there to be able to position it to be a leading company and ultimately to drive shareholder value? And we just concluded that the spinoff here was absolutely the right approach. A sale of a business like this, as I said, we've been in this business since the 1960s. So you think about the sale, the sale's going to come with an obvious tax implication there. And then a timeline that is not necessarily entirely within our control here. I think these 2 factors might be a little bit prohibitive here for anybody that's got any interest. We have no interest in selling the business, have no intention to selling, not even looking at selling it, and just think that spinoff is the better value creation for shareholders here. Obviously, we've done a couple spinoffs in our history. Those have gone very well. Obviously different circumstances, different times, different management teams. But I think one of the things that is clear to us in these processes is, I think one of the big indications here of a successful spin, I think a lot is attributed, I think, to a very highly group of Abbott people that become founders, so to say, of the new company, and they instill a lot of the Abbott kind of culture and the Abbott way of doing things into that business, and I think that helps set a strong foundation here. Like I said, I think this is a unique opportunity, growing demand for healthy nutrition. This will be a very differentiated asset here, and that's why I thought the spin was the better move here. And obviously, we're going to be working over the next kind of 12 months here to be able to get ready for that. And as we do with these, I think, Robbie, is we obviously are going to prepare to set up the Nutrition company for success. But it's also an opportunity for us to re-look also at existing Abbott and looking at our cost profiles and things like that. It's going to be a great opportunity for us to re-look at everything from that perspective. I'm excited about this. I think this was a good process. I think we came to the right long-term strategic decision here. And now it's all about execution. Robert Marcus: Thanks a lot. Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Larry Biegelsen from Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Larry Biegelsen: Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Robert, congrats on the Nutrition spin. Just confirm, please, that the NEC liability will remain with Abbott. That seems logical from what we've seen from other spins. Secondly, can you please talk about the drivers of the revenue guidance reduction this year? It looks like it implies about 8% growth in Q4, and what are the implications for 2027? Thank you. Robert Ford: Sure. I figured this question would come up, Larry. I thought it would come up a little bit down in the list here. I think, like you said, as it pertains to the announcement that we just made, how to deal with litigation matters is a common topic when it comes to business separations. We're not the first company that's had to deal with this, like you said. Actually pretty clear that we don't need to fully resolve the litigation matters. It's not a prerequisite for completing the separation. I'd say both Abbott and the new company are going to be well capitalized. Well capitalized to pursue their respective growth opportunities, well capitalized to execute the respective capital allocation priorities that they might have, and also well capitalized to continue to defend the legal positions here. I'll provide more details of that as we progress in terms of exactly where the liability will sit. But for me, both companies are going to be super well capitalized to be able to deal with that. At the same time, I think we continue to focus on achieving what we want to be a logical and sensible kind of resolution. You saw we took meaningful step back in August when we settled 2,000 claimants. But that settlement in no way reflects any change to the position that I've made here about these products, which is continue to stand behind their efficacy and safety. They remain essential component to neonatal care. They are a standard of care. I think if these products weren't available, I think you would see a little bit of a public health crisis there, and I think that view is supported by regulators and medical societies, including the FDA, NIH, CDC, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. So I think the litigation environment now is shifting, I would say, a little bit to our favor. We prevailed a lot in federal MDL cases, and there's going to be important decisions in both federal and state courts that have helped increase our position. So we'll provide updates as we go through the process in terms of a little bit more specificity and details. But all I can say is not a prerequisite to resolve it before the separation, and both companies will be well-capitalized to be able to deal with this. And then, sorry, what was your second question, Larry? Larry Biegelsen: Yeah, sorry. The revenue guidance reduction, I think to 6% this year implies about 8% for Q4. What was the driver or drivers of the revenue reduction and implications for next year? Thank you. Robert Ford: Sure. Yeah, listen, our Q3 growth was in line with the expectation of 7%. We had the normal puts and takes, Larry, that you have when it comes to managing a large portfolio like ours. We had 2 businesses that beat expectations, one business that met expectations, and then one business that missed expectations. So the reduction in Q4 for the full year, around 6%, like you said, implies just north of 8%, which is at least accelerating versus where we were in Q3. I mean, it's really driven by 2 businesses here. And I would characterize these as they're not kind of permanent changes to the growth rate, it's just adjusting based on what we're seeing right now, which is EP and diabetes. So let me unpack that a little bit for you. In EP, we're facing some short-term headwind from the dynamics related to the LAA market. It's become an increasingly headwind to our EP growth, not only due to the market challenges that I think a competitor has discussed pretty ample. But I'd say for us, so we saw that maybe with a quarter or 2 delayed versus where they were seeing it. And maybe that's just because of our size and market share position. But what was interesting is as soon as we got CE Mark for the new LAA device, there was almost like an immediate slowdown in orders here in the U.S. as I think accounts are waiting for the new product. So that's probably a little bit different for us. So when I got that, I was like, "Really?" And they were able to show me clearly trends that we were seeing, even with the slowdown and the impact of that CE Mark. I expect that dynamic to be there in Q4, and I think that's going to be the last quarter where we're going to see this dynamic of accelerating ablation business being offset a little bit by this headwind here. I think as we bring Amulet 360 to the market, I think we'll start to reignite that growth and capture share. At least that's my goal. But listen, despite the headwind, as I said in the prepared comments, I think the quarter we exited with a lot of great momentum. We continue to capture share in Europe. Europe growth was up 25%, and you have both platforms there, Volt and TactiFlex Duo. We're going to launch Volt in Japan sometime in Q4. That's going to turn Japan from a headwind to a tailwind for us. Japan followed very much a U.S.-type model where there was very rapid adoption of PFA. So we're excited about coming to the market in the fourth quarter in Japan. And I think Volt transitioned from limited market release to full market release in the U.S. in mid-August. So Q4 you'll have this full quarter of the impact over there. And the product's doing very well. And I think people might not have understood the dynamics of what a limited market release is and then how you transition to full market release, and I explained why we do that for all of our products. So TactiFlex Duo got approval in September. That came a little bit earlier than I expected. And as I said in the comments, this is one where the TactiFlex chassis, I'll say, is widely used already. So we'll probably do a very short limited market release here, very short, and then go to full launch already in Q4. So I think that's going to provide a lot of momentum here. So we've got a lot of catalysts lined up for our EP business. So I think the impact of that is about 5 points of growth versus where we were previously around 25%. I think we'll be around 20% in Q4. But I still believe even with that number, we're going to be taking market share. So that's one of the drivers. The other driver is diabetes. I think in the July call, Larry, I talked about that the CGM market had not seen a significant new reimbursement expansion for quite some time, and that led us to revise our diabetes growth outlook to high single. If I look into Q4 right now, and probably for the next few quarters, I expect that growth rate to be in that low to mid-single range. And that change really reflects, I think, two things. One of them is a little bit of a harder challenge in penetrating the type 2 population in absence of the reimbursement expansion. So that's probably one key driver. And like I said, that's going to be when we see the reimbursement expansion occur at CMS, then like I said, I think we'll see a very strong reimbursement growth. So that's one element there, Larry. And I think the other element that we're seeing is a little bit more pricing pressure in the international markets. And as you might know, we have significant market share in the international markets. If you look at all the major countries, we'll range between 50%-70% market share. We've always expected there to be some pricing pressure, especially with the growth of the category and the excitement. Internationally, I think you see a lot more competition, and we've been very good. I think the team's done an excellent job through marketing, through clinical, through all the superiority of the product over the last couple of years to be able to defend that. I actually expected to be a little bit more price pressure internationally, a little bit earlier. I think the team did a really good job there. I think our pricing actions here that we're going to have to take internationally are going to kind of mute a little bit of the volume growth that we're seeing. I think it would be a strategic mistake for us to lose market share based on price in these international markets. We're not having to match the pricing, Larry, but I think we're having to adjust a little bit here as we go through this. I think that's what I'm forecasting here over the next few quarters, is we'll make some pricing adjustments. As we do those, we're going to secure longer term contracts, and then also have language there regarding expansions of patient populations also. I think you have this dynamic here for a couple of quarters in our diabetes business so that we can make sure that we can defend our market share position. Then I think what you'll see then is kind of similar to kind of decisions we've made in other parts of the portfolio, where you have a little bit of an impact for a couple of quarters, and then you kind of reignite. I don't think this is at all any issue with the market. I've been pretty adamant about the ability still for there to be lots of market penetration. But we're not going to have our heads in the sand here and just think that you've got this great market and not expect there to be some price competition. The good thing for us, though, I would say is because of the scale that we built and because we've been planning for this and being ready for this, we're going to be able to offset the margin impact of that through our COGS programs and the things that we've been doing in our manufacturing setup. I think that's really the driver. But I would say if you look at, we got plenty of growth opportunities also, Larry. So when I kind of set that target of kind of low to mid, if I look at what we've got ahead of us, Libre Duo is going to launch. We really haven't launched that product yet, and I think that's going to be a nice growth driver for us next year. We're going to have a benefit here in the U.S. from a pretty significant payer formulary coverage that flipped in our favor, and that's going to go into effect January 1. There's a lot of growth opportunities that we've got in our diabetes business. Would I be surprised that we would do much better than that next year? It would not surprise me at all that we would do better. But at this point, I'd say we got to make sure we get the pricing aspect right. Then as we go through the year, we'll be factoring in some of these growth drivers and the implications that they have. If you think about 2027, then I think as you're looking at, okay, how does that translate into 2027? I expect to see acceleration in our total company growth rate. There's a lot of reasons why we would expect that. But I would say we're probably going to take a little bit more of a conservative approach here in terms of how we've guided historically, at least on the top line. We've maintained, I'd say, a pretty impressive track record for delivering on our EPS targets. I think if you go back for the last 6 years, we've met or beat our EPS targets every single quarter. If you look at the annual growth rate of what we've been doing to our EPS, it's been around 9% EPS growth. I think we've been really good and strong over there. As it relates to our top line, I think we've been very good, but I'd say the track record here in the last couple of quarters, or especially during this year, has been a little bit more inconsistent, let's call it like that, and we've fallen short from some of the expectations. I think for 2027, I think we'll set our guidance that's going to create opportunity for us to move up from there in January. I'm not going to give an official guidance here before our January's call, but high level, I'd say forecasting sales to be, as we come out of the gate, pretty similar to this year. I think that just probably feels like the right place to start. Larry, I say that while I acknowledge that we have a lot of new product launches this year. There's a lot of carryover from the products we launched this year into next year. There's a lot of new products we're launching in 2027. I get that there's probably some comps also, especially in the first half. I get all that, and all of that would obviously say, "Hey, you probably can accelerate your 2027 growth versus your 2026." I strongly feel that's going to be the case, but I said to start off, I think we'll take a little bit more of a different approach than what we've done in the past, and then we'll be able to kind of go up and move up from there. That being said, we're still going to have great opportunity for gross margin and gross margin expansion. We're still going to have earnings growth. We're still going to be investing in our near and long-term product pipelines. We're still going to be able to generate real strong cash flows. We'll grow our dividend. All the stuff that you would expect from Abbott, we're going to be doing all of that. I think that's probably the prudent way to start the year, and that's going to give us the opportunity to kind of move up through as the year progresses. Larry Biegelsen: All right. Super helpful. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Patrick Wood from UBS. Your line is open. Patrick Wood: Beautiful. Thank you so much for the question. I really appreciate it. I'd love to start on the pipeline and really just dig into that, because obviously, you've got conduction system pacing midterm, Amulet 360, probably 200 billion of biologic drugs going through LOE. There's obviously a lot midterm that's going on. I guess my question is in 2 parts. A, how do you feel about the forward pipeline today compared to the forward pipeline in the past? How would you rate it? B, as you're thinking about it, not asking you to pick your favorite children, but what do you feel like either gets missed by the market or less attention, but something that's really on your radar and very personally, a big sort of focus area for you? Thanks. Robert Ford: Sure. I love all of our innovations, Pat, so I don't think you're going to get me to go there. I would say, listen, I think the market recognizes the pipeline that Abbott's built. I don't think that there is a misunderstanding of what we're assembling over here. So we can talk about those, but I don't think there's some misunderstanding. I think it's clearly visible to investors that we've got multiple shots we're developing across all of our businesses. Yeah, and some of them will do better than others, but I think all of them will have great contributions to our growth rate. All we need is one or two to kind of completely blow it out, and it kind of changes the entire trajectory. But we're building a pipeline of products organically here that we're anticipating what our customers need, and we're making those investments. If you look at the R&D spend for Abbott pre-COVID, we were averaging around $1.7 billion, $1.8 billion. We're crossing $3 billion this year. We'll be increasing that into next year, which was kind of to my comment on 2027. We're going to continue to make our investments. We're going to continue to expand margins, and we can do all that because of how the portfolio's positioned into these very high growth, high margin, and quite frank, a lot of clinical problems to solve. I think you mentioned a couple of them there. I've talked about some of them. I'm excited about, you mentioned right off the get-go, the AVEIR CSP that's going into trial right now, the conduction system pacing leadless product. I'm excited about that because our goal is to completely change how pacemakers have been used in the past. I think our leadless technology shows that is possible. We're looking about really building a kind of sustained growth rate here. Many people didn't think that CRM was a growth business. We're showing that with good innovation, good insights, good relationships with accounts, we can drive that. I'm excited about the mitral replacement valve. I've spent some time close to that program, probably a little bit more closer than others, and had opportunity to interact with the KOLs, and I know because I've seen how these things play out. I can read people in terms of how they talk about innovations. You can tell sometimes when an innovation is good, and it'll compete well, and you can tell when a KOL tells you that this is really going to be a game changer, and it's going to change kind of the standard. I think our Cephea program's going to do that. We've got a balloon expandable TAVR valve going in. We've got IVL programs on the MedTech. We've got neuromodulation kind of investments that we're making also. We're making investments in our Libre platform, not just on a new diabetes sensor, but also looking at how to use the platform that we've built, the manufacturing, the technology platform, to expand into other analytes. We're going to go into trial with a lactate sensor. I can tell you there's at least 5 or 6 that the team is really excited that we're funding and that we're working on. Will all of them hit? Probably not. But if 2 or 3 hit, it'll be incredible, I think, to be able to kind of leverage that. I think you mentioned the biosimilars in our EPD business. Yeah, there's a significant amount of LOE that's happening in the biologic space, and a lot of these products aren't available in these emerging markets by decisions from the originators. This is going to be a huge opportunity for us to leverage the regulatory, the government, the physician, the distribution relations that we have to bring these products on. You got this business that's been growing at least for the last 5 years, between 7.5% and 8%, pretty consistently every single quarter. I think that is going to be very exciting also. On top of that, we're going to get into a bunch of new tests, new personalized diagnostic tests with our cancer diagnostic business. We're going to be reporting data on our MRD test at ESMO. I'm extremely excited about that test. I think that's going to provide us an opportunity also to start to be a player or at least to compete effectively in that segment of the market. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch out already too, but I'd say there's a deliberate effort on behalf of the entire management team here to make sure that as we find sometimes challenges and we have to look at our operational expenses, that R&D is really never an area that we're going to touch because we feel that our productivity in that, even with a 7% profile, we're getting a lot of productivity out of the pipeline. I think that is ultimately the lifeline that is going to be the growth driver for us. I'm sure that somebody in my team has got a map. I'm sure that my IR team has a map that lists out all the products between 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031, and those are all projects that we're constantly looking at. Looking at ways to accelerate them, looking at ways to make them better. We feel very good about our pipeline. At the same time, we don't suffer from the syndrome of not invented here. We never have. Do I prefer to have more of my innovation being organic? I do. But we've got plenty of capacity also to be able to add to the portfolio. If we see opportunities to do that, we'll do that. I've talked about probably going forward, at least for the foreseeable future here in the short term, it'll probably be more tuck-in deals. But we can do all that. We can have organic innovation, and we can also look externally. I think external partners look at Abbott as like, okay, this is a company that can actually make these innovations really impactful and global in the market. I think we have a good position there too. Pipeline's super healthy. If my R&D team is listening to this, they'll probably say, "Yes, but we could probably use more." They probably have a bunch of projects under the line, and that's good too. But I think we're investing in all the right areas to be able to sustain our growth. Patrick Wood: Love the color. Thanks so much. Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Matt Taylor from Jefferies. Your line is open. Matt Taylor: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I was hoping we could spend a minute or 2 on diagnostics and focus on cancer diagnostics and the trends there. It looks like you did a little bit better this quarter, but I know you're hoping for a step up into the mid-teens. Could you just touch on the dynamics with Cologuard, the rest of the business, and maybe give us some thoughts on Freenome? Robert Ford: Sure. Yeah, so we grew 14%. I think consensus was just north of that, like 15%, 15.5%. So came a little bit short. Was I expecting to do higher than both those numbers? You bet I was. I'd say the biggest driver of that delta versus expectation there was the cybersecurity event that we had in July. That caused us to lose a little bit of momentum. I think you see a lot of companies, including a few of our healthcare peers, have had to deal with that. Some of them with, I'd say, worse outcomes than what we went through. I think the team did a really good job. If you think about an integration process, dealing with a cyberattack is not on the menu, and I think that the guys did an incredible job to be able to mitigate that. When they did bring me the forecast, and they talked about, well, the cyber had an impact, as you would expect, I had to double click on that. We saw a couple of accounts, Matt, because of the connectivity in the system, the way we're connected to the system. We saw a couple systems shut the connectivity down until we could bring them evidence that, hey, everything was up to speed. When you do that, you're reverting back to faxes and emails and stuff like that. There were notable kind of drops. As soon as the systems were turned right back on, you saw that they pop right back up. Those blips, which lasted about 7-10 days, that cost us about a point of growth. Yeah, I expected to do better than what we delivered. I know the team did also. I think they did a really good job managing that. I think that the growth is great. I am really pleased with the integration and kind of how things are going. Cologuard grew mid-teens and continues to accelerate. We are seeing growth in new users, which is really important to be able to show that growth in new users. Obviously, the rescreen business is doing very well. The international growth rate is happening. The care gap program is growing also. It is definitely a growth segment for us. It is just probably a little bit harder to forecast. I am learning a little bit more about the difficulties in that forecasting right now. We obviously build a plan as to when we are going to send these orders out. Obviously, the insurance companies and the health systems will determine when they want that out. Sometimes they are managing their expenses. It is very clear to me that the need for these programs in place so that it feeds into their star ratings and into all of their Medicare CMS rebates is super important, and they value this hugely. It is really a question of timing. We had good growth in our care gap programs, too. I would say from a top-line perspective, I feel very good about where this business is going, and it is doing everything that we expected it to do. I am excited about the pipeline also. You mentioned the CRC blood test. It literally was, Matt, I think it was September 30th that they started kind of sending out the emails and starting to promote and all of that. So it really did not have much impact in Q3. Do I think it is going to have a contribution to our growth rate? Yeah, it will. Obviously, the ASP to that product is higher than the ASP that we have for Cologuard. So that is going to be a growth driver for us also. It has obviously got a different margin profile as we are working with a partner. But we factored all that in, not only in our deal model, but as we are going forward. I think it is going to play an important role. Do I think it is the preferred test? No, I do not. Nor does the medical societies, the Cancer Society, and a lot of the standard of care recommendations to go with stool first for a lot of reasons, but predominantly because you have got a better performance in earlier detection, and ultimately, that is what screening is all about. You are trying to detect early. But it does play a role in the portfolio, and I think that gives us the opportunity, as I said on my comments, we are really positioning ourselves here as the only company that has the broadest portfolio with both blood-based and stool-based testing. I think that puts us in an advantage as we talk to all the different value players, all the different stakeholders in the value chain. I think that puts us in the position of, okay, we have got all the different technologies here to be able to do that. So I feel good about the test. I think it is going to be an important test to have in the bag, especially for those that are not doing anything. So maybe this could be used as a way to get them to start to think about it since it is pretty convenient. But we just got to be careful about how these things are promoted and how the accuracy of the information that's being portrayed to the consumer is complete and transparent and some of the deficiencies that the blood still has. I think it's going to get better. It's got to get better. It will get better. It's just right now, the detection on the precancerous lesion side is not as good as what Cologuard is. As I said also, I think the MRD test that we're going to be presenting at ESMO, I think that's going to be a great opportunity. So pipeline's doing good. The international business, the opportunity to bring this technology international, we've been doing a lot of great work over there. We've already selected the markets that we're going to go after. And they wouldn't be what you would typically expect those markets to be, but they're the markets that we feel will have the biggest impact. I'll tell you what I'm really impressed is the progress we're making from a margin perspective. We're able to do all this, grow the business, invest in the pipeline, and really also change the trajectory of the profitability there. So if you looked at this business and its operating margin profile before we acquired it, and it just turned slightly positive. We're exiting the Q3 with an operating margin profile in the high teens already with this business. So I think that's very positive also that we can drive the top line and also drive the bottom line. As I've always said, EPS for us does matter. Yes, we do care about the top line, but EPS also matters, and I think the teams have been able to do both of those. So overall, I think the business is going well, and we've got a lot of growth opportunities ahead of us, whether it's with existing products, expanding to different areas, segments, countries, or bringing new products to the market also. Matt Taylor: Great. Thanks so much for that answer. Appreciate it. Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Vijay Kumar from Evercore ISI. Your line is open. Vijay Kumar: Hi, Robert. Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. I have 2 questions. Maybe I'll ask both of them upfront. One, a follow-up on this Exact. Did Cologuard 2.0, the next-gen Cologuard, did the reimbursement get cut, Robert? And what's the ASP for this blood test? It feels like Exact should accelerate. My second question was FY 2027. Thanks for the color on top line, but should we still be aiming for double-digit EPS growth? Thank you. Robert Ford: Yeah, sure. Let's talk about your first question regarding Cologuard Plus and getting a reimbursement cut. Listen, Cologuard Plus is a new test, so the process for setting CMS reimbursement is a little bit different versus tests that have been on the market for a while. We've been in active discussions with CMS. Conversations have been very productive. I'll just say the following. I find it very hard to imagine that when the process is done, that the reimbursement rate for Cologuard Plus would go down, and I'm just going to leave it at that. It is an interesting process, very different, I would say, from NCDs and some of the MedTech kind of process. So it's a little bit of a new process for us. But like I said, I'd be very surprised if that were to happen. I think you asked about the price of our blood test. Yeah, I'm not going to divulge that because for obvious competitive reasons. There's somewhat of a price that's been set by the market right now. We have an opportunity here to think about broad adoption of the technology. I find it difficult to believe that you'll get the kind of uptake in any kind of blood type test at these rates. Yeah, they'll show good growth rates, and you'll penetrate a very small part of the market, and you'd be able to show. But I think that for this market to really expand, and now I'm going beyond just SimpleScreen, I'm just talking about it just more holistically. If we're going to want to see this type of testing become standard of care, and there's going to be a very large amount of, at least in this country, the forecast is that 40% of adults are going to have some level of cancer. If you're going to have an impact and using diagnostics as a way to help eradicate and bring down these rates and increase surviv, there needs to be a much broader adoption, and you're not going to be able to get that broader adoption with the kind of pricing strategies that are being applied today. We're being mindful of that, and we're thinking about that. We're in discussions with payers, and we're really looking at how do we compose a full portfolio of cancer diagnostic solutions for those that are paying for it. So that's what I'll say about pricing right now. What was your other question? Vijay Kumar: EPS for fiscal 2027, is that still the right number? Robert Ford: Yeah. I get that you guys are going to start to try and triangulate as much as you can there. Like I said, I'm not going to give total guidance on this call. We're probably going to do that in January. All I'll say is, I gave a little bit in terms of how we're thinking about our top line. But like I said, we're going to have EPS growth, we're going to have gross margin expansion, we're going to have all the things that you would expect, and probably leave the actual specific guidance range for EPS and all other elements, cash flow, all of that, we'll leave that to January. Vijay Kumar: Thank you. Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Travis Steed from BofA Securities. Your line is open. Travis Steed: Hey, everybody. At TCT in a couple of weeks, we've got Amulet 360 pivotal data and coronary IVL pivotal data. Just curious anything you'd say on that, and then how quickly those products can launch. It seems like doctors are already waiting on Amulet 360 today. Comment on how much share you can take or kind of view on when the left atrial appendage closure market stabilizes. Robert Ford: Yeah. You got 2 important readouts for us at TCT this year. I think we'll have more, but yeah, I know those will gain a lot of attention. I'm not going to preface what the data is going to say. We'll wait for the investigators to lay out that information. I think we showed 45-day data at the Boston meeting back in January, Travis, for our LAA device, and I think that's a good benchmark to have there. Regarding the market, yeah, we started to feel some of these challenges, I'd say, maybe one or two quarters after the market leader. I think that the way to counter that is there's definitely an opportunity here still to educate, there's opportunity to make continued clinical investments, to be able to show the technology. Obviously, the market leader's been doing that. But so have we. We're going to have a readout of our trial, not next year, but probably the year after that on our trial versus NOACs. I just think you got to keep on investing. There's clearly a benefit here for the patients and the health systems. They want this. We are investing in a lot of stroke prevention technologies. This is one. It's obviously the one that gets a lot of attention. We probably have another 2 or 3 products that are in early stage in our venture arms that we're also kind of working on because I think this is just going to be a continued need. I think the market is going to continue to grow, and that's why we're going to continue to invest in it. In terms of our ability to forecast how much share, you'll probably do your checks with physicians and try and triangulate that. I'll let you guys decide what that's going to be. We think we've got a very competitive product that not only has added some ease of use to its implant, but it also maintains what we believe is a superior seal technology there. Yeah, we feel good about it. I think on the IVL, yeah, I think this is an interesting category. It's a $1 billion-plus market that's growing. We didn't have to spend over $10 billion to get an asset like this. We did it through our acquisition of CSI. Team took over the project, did some modifications, really good work by the team and our partner. We filed, at least for the coronary side, we filed for approval. I don't know exactly when, but I know we're expecting it sometime in the first half, and maybe we might surprise on the earlier side there. I think we feel good about it, adding that to the portfolio. I think the vascular team is really looking forward to this. I think you've seen that we've been able to accelerate our growth from kind of a negative flat business to now consistently delivering mid-single digits. I think this just adds to the ability to accelerate growth in our vascular business too. I think we'll start our peripheral IVL trial at the end of the year. So those 2 products will add to the growth rate in our vascular business. Travis Steed: Great. Thanks a lot. Mike Comilla: Crystal, we'll take one more question, please. Operator: Thank you. Our last question will come from Joanne Wuensch from Citi. Your line is open. Joanne Wuensch: Good morning, and thank you so much for taking the question, and congrats on the nutrition spin. Can you comment on potential reimbursement from CMS for non-intensive type 2 for CGM use? And a quick follow-up. Does anything in your pending spin of nutrition impact any of your other strategic plans, such as future M&A? Thanks. Robert Ford: Sure. I know this is the I don't know what type of question, how we would characterize it, but I know it's a big question, which is, when do we expect the type 2 non-insulin user CMS reimbursement to kick in? I'm just going to be consistent here, Joanne, is I'm not going to try and forecast that. What I can say is that the clinical data is significant. It is very real. I know that there are many in those that are making those decisions that believe in the value of data, of predictive data, of using continuous data to be able to kind of shape behavior. I've said this multiple times. CGMs, they are a behavior modification tool. They're not doing anything to your body. They're not changing any of the biology, anything in there. They're just giving you information. And there's a lot of people that believe that information is valuable to change behavior, especially with type 2 non-insulin using patients. The clinical data that has been presented has shown that. The same way the clinical data with basal patients has shown that too. So there is definitely support for it. There's a clinical support. But trying to forecast exactly when that's going to happen, I am not going to do that. I am not going to say that it is embedded in a forecast for next year. Right now, what I can say is I'm not really factoring it in. But I know that when it does kick in, like we've seen this in the past, acceleration happens. When that happens, I think that what we're doing is preparing ourselves to be in the best possible position. It is a different channel, right? You're not in the diabetes endo clinics. You're in primary care. It's a different field of play. We've been investing in that field for quite some time now. So I think we'll be in a good position to be able to capitalize on that, but trying to forecast it, I'm not going to try and do that, Joanne. But I can say that the momentum to be able to do it, the clinical support, all of that is all in place. It's really a question as to when that's going to happen. I'm sure you've maybe have read the comments, the open comment period. There's plenty of support. It's just really an opportunity here as to when that's going to happen. What was your second question again? Joanne Wuensch: It had to do with the nutrition spin and if it impacts any of the other changes- Robert Ford: Oh. Joanne Wuensch: M&A, et cetera. Robert Ford: Yeah. Thanks. Joanne Wuensch: It's an M&A question. Robert Ford: It's an M&A question. That's fine. Listen, the answer to that is a big no. It has no kind of impact. If anything, I'd say once we go through that, I think it even strengthens it even more. Our balance sheet is in very good, great shape. We've got a lot of flexibility. You know our philosophy here of taking more of a balanced approach. I'm not going to give you percentages of how much goes there, how much. But we take a balanced approach. We'll grow the dividend next year, right? We've got probably the last big tower of debt paydown related to the St. Jude and Alere acquisitions will occur this year. Then, we have very few kind of debt payments in the couple of years following that. So I think we'll be in a good position there. We'll have opportunity for buyback. We've got plenty of dry powder there. On the M&A side, yeah. I said this last time, we're obviously focusing on the Exact integration. I think the team has done an amazing job. The speed at which they've done this is really good. Our net debt to EBITDA is going to be around 2 times. So we still have plenty of capacity. But I would say, as we look around, it's probably more in the tuck-in range than it is on kind of more transformative, I would say, just because I'm not sure I see anything that's terribly exciting out there right now, at least kind of in that kind of startup kind of mode. I think there's some really early-stage stuff that we're very excited about, and that we're investing in from a venture perspective, but we've got plenty of opportunity, and if the opportunity aligns with the right moment and sequencing, like I said, we've got capacity to do that, but I'd say they're probably more tuck-in than anything else. No, that doesn't affect our ability to continue to grow the dividend, invest in our organic opportunities, and do M&A, too, so I think we're in good shape. I know I've gone over here, and I expected to go over, so appreciate everybody kind of hanging in there. I'd say, listen, we had a very good quarter, delivered an acceleration on the top and the bottom line. I think to one of the questions that was asked there, as I've said, innovation is the key differentiator at Abbott, and we don't want to be overly reliant on one or two products. We've got opportunities across all of our businesses. We've got multiple new product approvals that are going to carry into next year. We're going to have product launches that are going to occur in next year and will ramp up in next year. I think that is probably our biggest driver of sustainability here is our pipeline is very healthy. Teams are doing a great job at navigating what I would say is a pretty volatile environment right now around the globe. Teams have done an incredible job there, and I think they're going to continue to do that job as they continue to be motivated and inspired by the work that we're doing. We took this pretty big, important step here towards shaping the future. I think that's how one needs to look at this is we're not making quarterly decisions here. We're looking ahead the next 5, 10 years and what's the right portfolio to assemble. I think the opportunity that's going to be ahead of this nutrition company is going to be pretty significant. I'm excited for them, but I'm also excited for the Abbott portfolio. Thanks for being on the call. Mike Comilla: Thank you all for your questions. This now concludes Abbott's conference call. A webcast replay of this call will be available after 11:00 A.M. Central Time today on our website at abbott.com. Thank you all for joining us. Operator: Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day. Before you buy stock in Abbott Laboratories, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Abbott Laboratories wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $370,440!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,330,110!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 924% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 212% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of October 21, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Abbott Laboratories. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Abbott (ABT) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

- Interested in Abbott Laboratories? Here are five stocks we like better. - Abbott plans to spin off its nutrition business into a separate publicly traded company by the end of next year, pending approvals. The new company is expected to generate about $8.5 billion in annual sales, while Abbott shareholders will receive shares in both businesses. - Third-quarter results were solid, with sales up 7% and adjusted EPS up 9% to $1.42. Growth was led by established pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics and pediatric nutrition, while Abbott reported improved gross and operating margins. - Abbott lowered its full-year sales-growth outlook to approximately 6%, citing near-term pressure in electrophysiology and diabetes care. Fourth-quarter adjusted EPS is expected to be $1.62–$1.67, though the company still anticipates longer-term margin and earnings growth. - Moderna Just Doubled Overnight, and 2 More Healthcare Stocks Could Follow It Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) reported third-quarter sales growth of 7% and adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 9%, while announcing plans to separate its nutrition business into an independent publicly traded company through a tax-free distribution to shareholders. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Ford said the planned separation follows a strategic review and is intended to give both businesses greater operational focus. The company expects to complete the transaction by the end of next year, subject to required approvals. → The AI Sell-Off Continues—These 3 Stocks Keep Raising Guidance Anyway - Why Abbott Laboratories Stock Is Suddenly Winning Back Wall Street The nutrition company is expected to have about $8.5 billion in annual sales, 16,000 employees and 14 manufacturing sites. Its portfolio will include Similac, PediaSure, Ensure, Glucerna and Pedialyte. Ford said Abbott expects the business to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 based on its scale and financial profile. Daniel Salvadori, Abbott's executive vice president and group president of Established Pharmaceuticals and Nutrition Products, is slated to become chief executive officer of the new company. → Tesla's Roadster Reveal Hints at 2 Much Bigger Moves - AbbVie Fires Healthy Trend-Following Signal: Is a Rebound Ahead? Ford said the nutrition market has increasingly been influenced by consumer preferences, wellness trends and retail execution, rather than being shaped primarily by healthcare professionals. He said an independent company could more effectively invest in sales and marketing, innovation, and potentially tuck-in acquisitions as demand for healthier nutrition products grows. Abbott said it selected a spinoff rather than a sale after determining that the separation offered a better path for shareholder value creation. Ford said a sale could involve tax implications and a timeline less fully within Abbott's control. → Luxury's Middle Market Is Cracking—These 3 Stocks Could Win Chief Financial Officer Phil Boudreau said Abbott shareholders will own shares in both Abbott and the new nutrition company following the distribution. The final share distribution ratio will be disclosed before the separation. The new nutrition business is expected to raise debt, with a portion of proceeds to be distributed to Abbott, although the amount of debt and distribution have not yet been determined. Abbott said both companies are expected to maintain strong investment-grade credit ratings and to pay dividends that, in combination, equal Abbott's dividend at the time of separation. Boudreau said separation-related expenses will be treated as specified items and excluded from adjusted earnings. Abbott does not expect the separation process to affect the adjusted earnings guidance it plans to provide in January. Excluding nutrition from Abbott's current portfolio, the company expects sales growth to accelerate by 50 to 100 basis points. It also expects gross margin as a percentage of sales to rise by more than 200 basis points and operating margin to increase by approximately 100 basis points. Addressing litigation related to infant formula, Ford said resolving those matters is not a prerequisite to completing the separation. He said Abbott and the new nutrition company would be well capitalized to pursue their growth plans and defend their legal positions. Abbott settled claims from 2,000 claimants in August, Ford said, while continuing to stand behind the safety and efficacy of its products. Comparable sales increased 7% in the third quarter, while adjusted EPS of $1.42 was in line with Abbott's guidance and the consensus estimate, according to Boudreau. Foreign exchange had a 0.4% unfavorable year-over-year effect on sales. Adjusted gross margin was 57.2% of sales, up 140 basis points from a year earlier. Adjusted operating margin expanded 40 basis points to 23.4%. Adjusted research and development spending was 6.9% of sales, while adjusted selling, general and administrative expense was 26.9% of sales. - Diagnostics: Sales rose 6.5%, supported by 5.5% growth in core laboratory testing and 14% growth in cancer diagnostics. Abbott said it launched its first blood-based colorectal cancer screening test in September, adding to its existing stool-based screening offerings. - Nutrition: Sales increased 5%, with pediatric nutrition up 9% and U.S. pediatric sales up 11%. Adult nutrition rose 2%, including 3.5% growth in the United States. Abbott cited WIC contract wins and improving retail consumption trends. The company also launched a Similac ready-to-feed liquid infant formula made with whole milk. - Established Pharmaceuticals: Sales increased 8.5%, with broad-based growth across emerging markets and double-digit growth in several countries in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. - Medical Devices: Sales rose 8%, led by double-digit growth in electrophysiology and rhythm management. Continuous glucose monitoring sales rose 8%. Ford said electrophysiology growth was in the mid-teens to high teens excluding left atrial appendage, or LAA, products. U.S. growth exceeded 20% excluding LAA, aided by adoption of Abbott's Volt pulsed field ablation catheter after its full U.S. release in mid-August. The company received FDA approval for its TactiFlex Duo catheter in September and expects to begin a broad U.S. launch in the fourth quarter. Abbott also received CE Mark approval for its Amulet 360 LAA device and said it intends to bring the technology to the U.S. market. In rhythm management, sales increased 10% as adoption of the AVEIR leadless pacemaker expanded across single- and dual-chamber applications. In diabetes care, Abbott received FDA approval for Libre Duo, a dual glucose and ketone sensor, and expects a U.S. launch in December. Ford said full-year sales guidance was reduced to approximately 6% growth, implying fourth-quarter growth of slightly more than 8%. He attributed the change primarily to near-term factors in electrophysiology and diabetes care. In electrophysiology, Abbott expects LAA market conditions and customer ordering patterns ahead of the Amulet 360 launch to pressure growth in the fourth quarter. The company now expects about 20% growth in electrophysiology during the period, compared with a prior expectation of about 25%. For diabetes care, Ford said Abbott expects low- to mid-single-digit growth over the next several quarters, reflecting challenges penetrating the type 2 population without broader reimbursement and increased international pricing pressure. He said Abbott plans pricing adjustments intended to protect its market share while securing longer-term contracts. Abbott expects foreign exchange to reduce fourth-quarter sales by about 1%. The company forecast fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.62 to $1.67. Ford said Abbott expects overall sales growth to accelerate in 2027 but plans to take a more conservative initial approach to revenue guidance when it provides formal outlook details in January. He said the company still expects gross-margin expansion, earnings growth, continued R&D investment, strong cash flow and dividend growth. Abbott also said it has capacity for future acquisitions, though Ford indicated that nearer-term activity would likely focus on tuck-in deals as the company continues integrating Exact Sciences. Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of medical products and services. Founded in 1888 by Wallace C. Abbott, the company is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, and serves patients, healthcare providers and consumers in markets around the world. Abbott operates across four principal businesses: medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition and established pharmaceutical products. Its offerings include glucose-monitoring systems such as FreeStyle Libre; cardiovascular devices, including stents and structural heart products; laboratory and point-of-care diagnostic systems; and branded generic medicines in areas such as gastroenterology, women's health and cardiometabolic care. The company's nutrition portfolio includes infant and pediatric products such as Similac and PediaSure, adult nutritional products such as Ensure, and rehydration products such as Pedialyte. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "What Abbott Laboratories (ABT) Said on Its Q3 Earnings Call" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for October 2026.

Abbott (ABT) reported $13.01 billion in revenue for the quarter ended September 2026, representing a year-over-year increase of 14.5%. EPS of $1.42 for the same period compares to $1.30 a year ago. The reported revenue represents a surprise of +0.3% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $12.97 billion. With the consensus EPS estimate being $1.43, the EPS surprise was -0.7%. While investors closely watch year-over-year changes in headline numbers -- revenue and earnings -- and how they compare to Wall Street expectations to determine their next course of action, some key metrics always provide a better insight into a company's underlying performance. Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance. Here is how Abbott performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts: - Net sales- Nutrition- U.S.: $958 million compared to the $931.65 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of +7.9% year over year. - Net sales- Nutrition- International: $1.3 billion versus $1.28 billion estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +3.1% change. - Net sales- Diagnostics- U.S.: $1.85 billion versus the four-analyst average estimate of $1.85 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +109.1%. - Net sales- Diagnostics- International: $1.45 billion versus the four-analyst average estimate of $1.44 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +6.2%. - Net sales- Nutrition: $2.26 billion versus the five-analyst average estimate of $2.21 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +5.1%. - Net sales- Diagnostics: $3.31 billion versus $3.29 billion estimated by five analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +46.7% change. - Net sales- Medical Devices- Diabetes Care: $2.19 billion compared to the $2.2 billion average estimate based on five analysts. The reported number represents a change of +6.2% year over year. - Net sales- Established Pharmaceuticals: $1.61 billion versus the five-analyst average estimate of $1.61 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +6.8%. - Net sales- Medical Devices- Vascular- Total: $786 million versus $775.46 million estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +5.5% change. - Net sales- Medical Devices- Neuromodulation- Total: $251 million versus the four-analyst average estimate of $263.09 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of -1.2%. - Net sales- Medical Devices- Structural Heart- Total: $592 million compared to the $598.89 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of -6.8% year over year. - Net sales- Medical Devices- Heart Failure- Total: $387 million versus $396.07 million estimated by four analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a +5.7% change. View all Key Company Metrics for Abbott here>>> Shares of Abbott have returned -1.2% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +1% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), indicating that it could outperform the broader market in the near term. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Abbott Laboratories (ABT) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research