Robert Ford on portfolio management
From Abbott Laboratories ($ABT) Q1 2026 Earnings Call · · Castify Earnings Call
“I think ultimately, you know, the way our business is, we're very diversified company. We lay out all of the different businesses. We break out even within sectors, we break them out and be able to show the performance in that. My view here is that yeah, it would be great to have every single business beating all of the street expectations. Unfortunately, sometimes you're not going to have that. I'm not going to say that never happens because it's happened before, but sometimes it doesn't happen. And I think the important thing there, Robbie, is that you have a collection of businesses that we feel are very attractive and that the combination the sum of them are able to hit our commitments and deliver on our financial commitment.”
On , Robert Ford, Chairman, President & CEO at Abbott Laboratories, spoke about portfolio management during Abbott Laboratories ($ABT) Q1 2026 Earnings Call on Castify Earnings Call.
About Robert Ford
On Abbott's first-quarter 2026 earnings call, Robert Ford stated he remains "very confident" in an acceleration of growth in the second half of the year, saying the company knows "what the drivers are" and is "laser focused" on execution. Ford described the integration of Exact Sciences as going "very well" and expressed optimism about the continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) market, estimating that 70 to 80 million people globally should be using CGMs compared to a current market of around 10 to 12 million. He also said he expects proposed language for CMS type 2 non-insulin coverage "coming soon," which he said would add coverage for close to 10 million people. Regarding Abbott's nutrition business, Ford said he would not make a long-term strategic decision based on near-term challenges and that his focus is on returning the business to its prior growth rate. He described the company as "very diversified" and noted that while it would be "great" for every business to beat expectations, that does not always happen. Ford also said the electrophysiology market is expected to grow in the "mid to high teens" and that Abbott is "shooting to do better than that."