Abbott's quarterly profit, sales beat Street estimates

(Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and sales, helped by growth across its businesses and device launches.

The diversified healthcare company reported net earnings of $418 million, or 23 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared to $419 million, or 24 cents per share, a year earlier.

Net sales rose to $7.39 billion from $6.34 billion.

Excluding items, Abbott reported a profit of 59 cents per share.

Analysts on average had expected profit of 58 cents per share on revenue of $7.29 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Profit from Abbott's medical device business - its largest division - continued to benefit from its $25 billion purchase of St. Jude Medical. Sales for the unit rose 14.6 percent to $2.74 billion in the quarter.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)