Abbott Laboratories has suffered a setback during the fourth quarter ended December 2013 and its net earnings, after specified items related to separation of AbbVie, declined by 44 per cent to US$ 589 million from $1,053 million in the corresponding period of last year. The company shown earnings of $1575 million from discontinued operations in the last period as against nil in the current period. Its net sales increased marginally by 0.4 per cent to $5,655 million from $5,632 million. The sales disruption in international nutrition during August has estimated to have reduced Abbott's total worldwide sales growth by approximately 1.5 percentage point.
Its US sales declined by 0.8 per cent during the fourth quarter ended December 2013 to $1,589 million and its international sales registered growth of 4.9 per cent and moved up to $4,066 million. The nutrition sales in emerging markets during the fourth quarter improved by 9 per cent to $2,300 million. Nutrition sales in US declined by 2.5 per cent to $725 million. Its diagnostics sales in US increased by 5.5 per cent to $321 million and that of medical devices declined by 0.8 per cent to $522 million.
The sales of established pharmaceuticals in the international market improved by 0.7 per cent during the quarter to $1,288 million. Abbott is focused on 14 key emerging markets that represent attractive long-term growth opportunities. Sales in these key emerging markets increased by 10.1 per cent to $611 million, led by strong growth in Brazil, Russia and China. The pharmaceutical sales in other market like Western Europe and Japan declined by 6.7 per cent to $677 million.
Abbott's net sales for the full year ended December 2013 improved by 1.6 per cent to $21,848 million from $21,494 million in the previous year. Its net earnings declined sharply by 56.8 per cent to $2,576 million from $5,963 million. Its operating profit, however, improved by 38.8 per cent to $2,629 million from $1,894 million.
In 2013, despite some challenges, we achieved our expectations for earnings growth, including more than 100 basis points of operating margin expansion. In 2014, we are targeting another year of double-digit ongoing earnings-per-share growth.” said Miles D White, chairman and chief executive officer. The total sales of established pharmaceuticals in the international market improved by 0.7 per cent to $4,974 million during the year ended December 2013. Sales in key emerging markets of pharmaceuticals increased by 6.3 per cent to $2,358 million and that in Europe and Japan declined by 4 per cent to $2,626 million. Worldwide diabetes care sales declined by 0.8 per cent to $1,306 million.
The company has decided to increase in its share repurchases to more than $2 billion in current year. It issued ongoing earnings-per-share guidance for the full-year 2014 of $2.16 to 2.26, representing double-digit growth at the mid-point of the guidance range.