Abbott Laboratories (ABT) Changes Its Focus

Another competitor, Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN), reported Q1 sales of $1.04 billion, an increase of 5% over last year’s quarter. Emerging markets also factored into the rise with 7% growth in the Asia/Latin American market as against 1% growth in Europe and North America.  In its press release, Mead also mentioned about concerns with future sales in the Hong Kong/China region, where regulations went into effect on March 1, limiting exports into the area.

According to Forbes, most analysts believe Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)’s future growth will be driven by its nutritional product lines, and majority of the sales will be coming from emerging markets. Forbes quotes Morgan Stanley’s David Lewis, stating that “nutritionals is the key driver for Abbott and China is the catalyst.” Lewis goes on to say that the global nutritional market will derive about 60% of its growth from the Chinese market.

The Motley Fool’s Keith Speights expects decent profits from Abbott in the future, but investors should not expect double-digit growth after the spin-off of the company’s pharmaceutical business.

Eileen Rojas has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

The article Abbott Shifts Focus to Nutrition Demand Overseas originally appeared on Fool.com.

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