Abbott holds adjusted profit guidance but trims its 2026 sales growth target to about 6.0%

Abbott Laboratories reported third-quarter 2026 net sales of $13.01 billion, up 14.5 percent from a year earlier, with 7.0 percent growth on the comparable basis management uses to neutralize currency and the timing of the Exact Sciences acquisition. The company tightened full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance to $5.50 to $5.55 while holding the midpoint, but lowered its full-year comparable sales target to approximately 6.0%.

The quarter's reported growth is real, but it is not the growth Abbott's own comparable measure describes. The difference sits almost entirely in Diagnostics, where the Exact Sciences deal changed what the prior-year base contains.

Diagnostics growth rests on the Exact Sciences base

Diagnostics sales reached $3.31 billion in the third quarter, up 46.7 percent on a reported basis and 6.4 percent on a comparable basis. The gap is arithmetic. Abbott closed the Exact Sciences acquisition on March 23, 2026, so its 2025 reported sales never contained the business; the revenue reconciliation adds $851 million of Exact's third-quarter 2025 sales to the prior-year base to make the comparison. Cancer Diagnostics, the line that now houses Exact, recorded $968 million of sales. On the comparable basis the quarter split sharply inside the division: Core Laboratory grew 5.4, Rapid and Molecular Diagnostics 0.9 and Cancer Diagnostics 13.8, in percentage terms, each versus the same quarter a year earlier.

A $670 million legal charge splits reported profit from adjusted

GAAP net earnings were $920 million against $1.64 billion a year earlier, and GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.53 against $0.94. Adjusted net earnings, which exclude specified items, rose to $2.48 billion from $2.28 billion. The distance between the two is $1.69 billion of pre-tax specified items, or $1.557 billion after tax ($0.89 a share): $841 million of intangible amortization, roughly $670 million of legal settlements covering the Gill case and the necrotizing enterocolitis claims asserted for about 2,000 additional infants, and $178 million of acquisition, restructuring and other costs. The settlements are one-time in the adjusted presentation, but the amortization that arrived with Exact Sciences is now a recurring feature of the GAAP result. Neither measure escapes the financing cost: net interest expense was $297 million against $44 million a year earlier, and the reconciliation to adjusted earnings stops at the specified items, leaving interest in both figures.

Profit guidance holds while the sales target comes down

Abbott said it "reaffirms the midpoint of previously provided full-year 2026 adjusted diluted EPS guidance range and tightens the range to $5.50 to $5.55." The prior range, set with second-quarter results in July, was $5.45 to $5.60, so the midpoint did not move. Comparable sales guidance did: the release now projects full-year growth of approximately 6.0%, against the 6.5% to 7.5% range the company reaffirmed three months earlier. The reconciliation table puts nine-month comparable growth below that new annual target, which leaves the fourth quarter to close the gap. Fourth-quarter adjusted diluted EPS guidance is $1.62 to $1.67. Abbott did not provide forward-looking GAAP EPS guidance: the release says it cannot predict with reasonable certainty the timing and impact of items such as intangible impairments and acquisition-related expenses.

Nutrition turns positive as devices and generics carry the base

Nutrition sales of $2.26 billion rose 5.1 percent from a year earlier on a reported basis and 4.9 percent on a comparable basis, recovering from the decline that ran through the first half. Medical Devices sales of $5.83 billion rose 6.9 percent from a year earlier on a reported basis and 7.8 percent comparable, with double-digit comparable growth in Electrophysiology and Rhythm Management and continuous glucose monitors up 7.3 percent reported. Established Pharmaceuticals sales of $1.61 billion rose 6.8 percent from a year earlier on a reported basis and 8.4 percent comparable, and Key Emerging Markets grew 9.0 percent reported.

What the Form 10-Q and the fourth quarter must show

Chief Executive Robert B. Ford framed the quarter broadly: "Abbott delivered strong third-quarter results, reflecting balanced growth across our portfolio," he said. The release does not explain why the comparable sales target moved down while the earnings midpoint held, and it carries no cash-flow statement or balance-sheet detail. Those arrive with the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026, and with the fourth-quarter and full-year release. Abbott webcasts its third-quarter call at 8 a.m. Central time today. For the year to land near 6.0%, the fourth quarter has to grow faster than the nine-month comparable pace reported in the reconciliation.