Abbott Labs tops earnings estimates as COVID-19 test sales surge

Yahoo Finance Live’s Julie Hyman and Brian Sozzi discuss first quarter earnings for Abbott labs.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Got the opening bell right now.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[BELL RINGING]

[APPLAUSE]

JULIE HYMAN: All right. There's your bell on this Tuesday morning, and the higher open that we are anticipating, a higher open that is perhaps surprising given the big bust in shares of Netflix. But you know, nonetheless, it looks like shares are going to open higher.

Even the NASDAQ looks like-- that was the NASDAQ close yesterday, that 2% increase. But it should open up in just a few moments here. Remember, it takes the NASDAQ longer because there are a lot more stocks in the NASDAQ than in the other averages. But it's-- even it is up a quarter of 0.25%, even with the Netflix blow-up.

BRIAN SOZZI: That quarter was so bad. I-- really, we could do about a two-hour show on this quarter from Netflix. There were so many red flags in this quarter, Julie. But again, of course, we should also note, too, this is the top-trending ticker on the alpha.

JULIE HYMAN: Of course.

BRIAN SOZZI: And it will probably be so for the next 48 hours.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes, we are going to talk more about Netflix. But first, I want to talk about Abbott Labs. Because that company came out with numbers. And guess what? It's still selling COVID tests.

BRIAN SOZZI: Mm hmm.

JULIE HYMAN: And that was one of the things that helped it in the quarter, 14% increase in sales overall. And those testing-related sales were still up 43% quarter over quarter to $3.3 billion, which was better than estimated, and which is, perhaps, a surprising number given that Johnson and Johnson, yesterday-- I mean, I guess we're talking about different sides of the COVID coin, right, when we're talking about-- and Johnson and Johnson's vaccine is perhaps an individual case as well.

But it is interesting that people are still doing a lot of home testing. Less of it-- less of those tests are perhaps getting reported, right? But people are still very conscience-- conscious of having to test, especially if more people are traveling, for example, and they want to know if they have COVID before they get out there.

BRIAN SOZZI: Well, these tests essentially have become just commonplace in our lives. We need them in some form. Once you get that J&J shot, or whatever shot you had, you not going back the week after and getting more shots for the hell of it. But I think Abbott, you know, they've seen the stock down a little bit here. Outlook unchanged. Market doesn't like to see that.

JULIE HYMAN: And I should mention, also, that X the COVID sales, it was a little bit more of a mixed bag. Nutrition sales were down 7%. All the other units, though, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices, all of those saw increases. So even a X that, we were seeing mostly strength with the exception of nutrition.