Abbott Plans to Spin Off Similac and Ensure, and Its Last Spinoff Now Outsells It
Abbott plans to spin off Similac, Ensure and Pedialyte, the only one of its four businesses with lower sales so far in 2026. The last business Abbott spun off, AbbVie in 2013, grew to outsell Abbott itself. Before this year, its filings show two years of lower volumes, with higher prices adding to sales.
The short answer. On October 21, 2026, Abbott said it plans to make its nutrition business, with about $8.5 billion of yearly sales, a separate company by the end of 2027. The brands on pharmacy and grocery shelves go with it, and the announcement names no change to the products themselves. We read Abbott’s filings back to 2004 and the records of four earlier health spinoffs to show the record behind the move and how those went.
Abbott’s nutrition spinoff in three numbers
Show the data
| Item | Value | Times the smallest |
|---|---|---|
| AbbVie 2025 net revenues | $61.2B | 1.4x |
| Abbott 2025 sales | $44.3B | 1.0x |
On this page
- Why is Abbott spinning off its nutrition business?
- How big is Abbott’s nutrition business?
- Will Similac and Ensure change after the spinoff?
- Abbott spin off history, from Hospira to AbbVie
- What happened to Kenvue and other health spinoffs?
- What happens to Abbott shares and the dividend in the spinoff?
- How we counted
- Frequently asked questions
Why is Abbott spinning off its nutrition business?
Abbott says the two businesses need different plans and different spending, and its own figures show the gap behind that argument. Nutrition is the only part of Abbott with lower sales this year. For two years before that, it sold a smaller volume and higher prices did the work of growth.
Abbott’s announcement puts the reason in its own words. The two companies have “different investment identities and requirements, growth profiles, and innovation cycles,” and the remaining Abbott “will have accelerated sales growth and an expanded margin profile.” The company gave no number for either promise, so we went to the figures it does publish.
The third quarter results, released five minutes after the spinoff news, tell the first part. Over the first nine months of 2026, nutrition sales fell 2.1% on Abbott’s comparable basis. That basis strips out currency swings and counts the Exact Sciences cancer testing business, bought in March, in both years. Medical devices grew 8.2% on the same basis.
There is a turn in the latest numbers. Nutrition sales grew 4.9% in the third quarter on the comparable basis, with children’s nutrition up nearly 9%, after three quarters of declines. It was still the slowest of the four businesses in the quarter.
Show the data
| Category | Change |
|---|---|
| Nutrition | -2.1% |
| Diagnostics | +3.8% |
| Established Pharmaceuticals | +8.7% |
| Medical Devices | +8.2% |
The 10-K annual report for 2025 tells the second part. Abbott splits each year’s sales change into price, volume and currency, and for nutrition the price line carried the result two years running. In 2024 higher prices added 7.7% to nutrition sales while lower volumes took away 1.7%. In 2025 prices added 2.4% while lower volumes took away 1.3%, and currency trimmed both years.
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| Category | Higher prices | Volume sold |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 7.7 pts | -1.7 pts |
| 2025 | 2.4 pts | -1.3 pts |
That price figure is Abbott’s own measure across the whole business and all its buyers. It says nothing about the price of any single can on any single shelf.
Profit shows a gap too, though nutrition’s own profit has been rising. In 2025 nutrition kept about $18 of every $100 of sales as segment profit, up from about $16 in 2023, while medical devices, home of the Libre glucose sensors and heart devices, kept about $34. The segment figures leave out some company-wide costs, so they compare the businesses with each other and say nothing about either company’s final profit.
| Abbott business | Sales, first nine months 2026 | Reported change | Comparable change | Comparable change, Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nutrition | $6,423 million | -1.3% | -2.1% | +4.9% |
| Diagnostics | $8,577 million | +32.4% | +3.8% | +6.4% |
| Established Pharmaceuticals | $4,539 million | +9.3% | +8.7% | +8.4% |
| Medical Devices | $17,218 million | +9.6% | +8.2% | +7.8% |
| Total Abbott | $36,770 million | +11.9% | +5.2% | +7.0% |
Segment profit in 2025, from the 10-K segment note: Nutritionals $1,558 million on $8,451 million of sales (18.4%); Medical Devices $7,212 million on $21,387 million (33.7%); Diagnostics $1,740 million on $8,937 million (19.5%); Established Pharmaceuticals $1,290 million on $5,536 million (23.3%). Nutrition sales change, 10-K components: 2025 total +0.4% (price +2.4, volume -1.3, exchange -0.7); 2024 total +3.2% (price +7.7, volume -1.7, exchange -2.8).
Source: Abbott third quarter 2026 results, October 21, 2026; Abbott 10-K for 2025, filed February 20, 2026. Margins are our calculation from the segment table.
How big is Abbott’s nutrition business?
It is a big company on its own, with about $8.5 billion of yearly sales. Next to the rest of Abbott, though, it is only about one sixth of what the two would sell together.
The new company takes Abbott’s best known names. The announcement lists Similac baby formula, PediaSure for children, Pedialyte for rehydration, Glucerna for people with diabetes and Ensure shakes for adults. Abbott calls Ensure “the world’s No. 1 adult nutrition supplement drink” and Similac “the No. 1 infant formula brand in the U.S.”
Show the data
| Part | Value | Squares |
|---|---|---|
| Nutrition | $17 | 17 |
| The rest of Abbott | $83 | 83 |
Most of the money comes from adults, and most of it from outside the United States. In 2025 adult nutrition sold abroad was the biggest piece, at $3.0 billion of the $8.45 billion total, according to the 10-K. Sales in the United States were about 43% of the business.
The new company takes about 16,000 employees and 14 factories, and Abbott says the remaining company will have about $42 billion of sales. Daniel Salvadori, who runs Abbott’s nutrition and established medicines businesses today, will be chief executive of the new one.
| Nutrition product line | 2025 sales | Share of nutrition sales |
|---|---|---|
| Adult nutrition outside the U.S. | $3,029 million | 35.8% |
| Children’s nutrition in the U.S. | $2,158 million | 25.5% |
| Children’s nutrition outside the U.S. | $1,816 million | 21.5% |
| Adult nutrition in the U.S. | $1,448 million | 17.1% |
| Total | $8,451 million | 100% |
The announcement gives “approximately $8.5 billion in annual sales” without naming the period; it matches 2025’s $8,451 million. The four quarters to September 2026 add up to $8,363 million.
Source: Abbott 10-K for 2025, sales by product line; shares are our calculation.
Will Similac and Ensure change after the spinoff?
Nothing in the announcement changes the products. The brands, the factories and the people move together into the new company, and until then the business keeps running inside Abbott.
The announcement says “the Nutrition business will continue to operate as part of Abbott throughout the separation process,” which Abbott expects to finish by the end of 2027. It names no new company name, no change of brand and no change of price.
Abbott does point to what it has been launching. The business had 10 product launches in the first half of 2026. Among them were an Ensure shake with 42 grams of protein, a ready-to-feed Similac made with whole milk and dye-free Pedialyte. Abbott says the new company will chase demand for health and wellness products, including what it calls metabolic health.
Abbott spin off history, from Hospira to AbbVie
Abbott has split itself twice before. In 2004 it let go of its hospital products as Hospira, and in 2013 it let go of its drug business as AbbVie. That drug business now sells more than Abbott does.
Hospira came first. Abbott’s 10-K for 2004 records that its shareholders received one Hospira share for every 10 Abbott shares on April 30, 2004. Hospira made injectable drugs, drug delivery systems and critical care devices for hospitals.
The bigger split was announced on October 19, 2011, the same day Abbott reported quarterly results, just as today’s was. Abbott said in its 10-K for 2011 that it would become one company in medical products and one in research-based medicines. It completed the split on January 1, 2013, according to its 8-K report, giving shareholders one AbbVie share for each Abbott share.
That split was the mirror image of this one. In 2011 the medicines business brought in 43.8% of Abbott’s sales and earned 42.0% of its own sales as segment profit, more than any other part of the company. Nutrition, at the time, was 15.5% of sales.
AbbVie went on to report net revenues of $61.2 billion for 2025 in its year-end results. Abbott’s 2025 sales were $44.3 billion, so the business it handed to its shareholders now sells 1.38 times as much as Abbott. Abbott shareholders at the time kept their Abbott shares and received AbbVie shares as well. The two have grown in different ways since, and that record says nothing about how a nutrition company will do.
| Business, 2011 | Net sales | Share of Abbott sales | Segment profit | Profit per $100 of sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proprietary Pharmaceuticals (became AbbVie) | $17,022 million | 43.8% | $7,155 million | $42.0 |
| Nutritionals | $6,006 million | 15.5% | $797 million | $13.3 |
| Abbott total net sales | $38,851 million | 100% |
Announcement to completion: October 19, 2011 to January 1, 2013, 440 days.
Source: Abbott 10-K for 2011, segment note; Abbott 8-K, January 2, 2013. Shares, margins and day counts are our calculation.
What happened to Kenvue and other health spinoffs?
We followed four health businesses that were split off from bigger companies. Three of them later agreed to be bought by another company, and one, AbbVie, stayed independent and grew. That is a record of four cases, and it says nothing about what will happen to Abbott’s nutrition company.
Show the data
| Business, parent, year | Split announced | Became its own company | Agreed to be bought | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospira (Abbott, 2004) | Reached | Reached | Reached | Bought by Pfizer, 2015 |
| Mead Johnson (Bristol-Myers, 2009) | Reached | Reached | Reached | Reckitt deal, 2017 |
| AbbVie (Abbott, 2013) | Reached | Reached | Not reached | Still independent |
| Kenvue (Johnson & Johnson, 2023) | Reached | Reached | Reached | Sale pending |
| Abbott Nutrition (announced 2026) | Reached | Not reached | Not reached | Due by end of 2027 |
| Reached | 5 of 5 | 4 of 5 | 3 of 5 |
Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, Band-Aid, Listerine and Neutrogena, is the closest recent case of household health brands leaving a giant. Johnson & Johnson announced the plan in November 2021. Kenvue says in its 10-K that it listed its shares in May 2023 and became fully independent in August 2023.
Its sales then went sideways. They ended 2025 at $15.1 billion, down 2.1% from 2024, the same year a buyer came along with an offer for the whole company. In November 2025 Kimberly-Clark agreed to buy Kenvue in a deal valuing it at about $48.7 billion including debt. Kimberly-Clark said on October 19, 2026 that it expects to close in the fourth quarter.
The closest case in baby formula is Mead Johnson Nutrition. Bristol-Myers Squibb completed its exit from Mead Johnson on December 23, 2009, according to its 8-K report. In February 2017 Mead Johnson agreed to be bought by Reckitt Benckiser for $90 a share in cash.
Hospira, Abbott’s own 2004 spinoff, was also bought later. Pfizer’s purchase of it took effect on September 3, 2015, about 11 years after the split, according to Hospira’s 8-K report.
How we chose these four
We picked Abbott’s two earlier separations and the two closest consumer cases, household health brands (Kenvue) and baby formula (Mead Johnson). Many other health companies have been spun off, so these four are examples, and they are no sample of all spinoffs. Each date comes from the companies’ own filings or releases.
What happens to Abbott shares and the dividend in the spinoff?
Abbott shareholders would keep their Abbott shares and receive shares of the new company, which Abbott intends to be tax free under U.S. federal income tax rules. Abbott expects the two dividends together to equal Abbott’s dividend at the time of the split.
- Plan announced Abbott announced the plan on October 21, 2026; the nutrition business keeps operating inside Abbott until the split.
- Conditions met Abbott names regulatory approvals, an effective Form 10 registration statement and final approval by its board, with no order given.
- New shares distributed Abbott plans to distribute shares of the new nutrition company to Abbott shareholders and has not said how many each would get.
- Two stocks After the split, Abbott shareholders would own shares of both Abbott and the independent nutrition company.
The announcement says the new shares go out as a distribution to Abbott shareholders. It has not said how many new shares each Abbott share will get. In 2013 the ratio was one AbbVie share per Abbott share, and in 2004 one Hospira share per 10 Abbott shares.
The conditions before that are set out in the announcement, with no order given. They include regulatory approvals, an effective Form 10 registration statement and final approval by Abbott’s board. Abbott plans to give its outlook for 2027 in January and says the spinoff changes neither that nor its 2026 outlook.
The dividend promise matters to many holders, because Abbott has raised its payout for 54 consecutive years and pays 63 cents a share each quarter. Abbott has not said how the payout will be divided between the two companies. Our dividend yield calculator and our guide to record and payment dates explain how a payout reaches a shareholder.
How we counted
Growth by business comes from the segment tables of Abbott’s third quarter 2026 release. The comparable basis is Abbott’s own. It excludes currency and a competitor’s compensation payments to the Structural Heart business, and it counts Exact Sciences, bought on March 23, 2026, in both years. The price and volume split is the “components of change” table in the 10-K for 2025. Segment profit per $100 of sales divides each segment’s operating earnings by its sales in the 10-K segment note; these figures exclude amortization, share-based pay and corporate costs.
The waffle divides about $8.5 billion of nutrition sales by $50.5 billion, the sum of the announcement’s two approximate figures ($8.5 billion and about $42 billion for Abbott after the split). Abbott gives no period for either, so the $42 billion is its own post-split figure and is not comparable with its reported 2025 sales of $44.3 billion. The share is 16.8%, shown as 17 squares. The AbbVie ratio divides AbbVie’s 2025 net revenues of $61,160 million by Abbott’s 2025 sales of $44,328 million. The day count runs from the 2011 announcement to the 2013 completion.
Frequently asked questions
When will the Abbott nutrition spin off happen?
Abbott expects to complete it by the end of 2027, after regulatory approvals, an effective Form 10 registration statement and final approval by its board. Until then the nutrition business stays part of Abbott.
What do Abbott shareholders get in the nutrition spinoff?
They keep their Abbott shares and receive shares of the new nutrition company through a distribution that Abbott intends to be tax free for U.S. federal income tax purposes. The number of new shares per Abbott share has not been announced.
Will the Abbott stock dividend change after the spinoff?
Abbott expects the dividends of the two companies together to equal Abbott’s dividend at the time of the separation. It has not said how the payout will be divided between them.
Did Abbott spin off AbbVie?
Yes. Abbott announced the split on October 19, 2011 and completed it on January 1, 2013, giving one AbbVie share for each Abbott share. In 2004 it had also spun off Hospira, its hospital products business.
Where can I follow Abbott news on StockTitan?
StockTitan’s Abbott overview page carries the company’s releases as they come out, and its financials page shows the reported results by quarter.
Sources
- StockTitan: Abbott overview
- StockTitan: Abbott financials
- Abbott: intention to separate its Nutrition business, October 21, 2026
- Abbott: third quarter 2026 results, October 21, 2026
- Abbott: 411th consecutive quarterly dividend, September 17, 2026
- AbbVie: full year 2025 results, February 4, 2026
- Kimberly-Clark and Kenvue: acquisition agreement, November 3, 2025
- Kimberly-Clark: notes offering, October 19, 2026
- Abbott 10-K for 2025
- Abbott 10-K for 2011
- Abbott 8-K, October 19, 2011
- Abbott 8-K, January 2, 2013
- Abbott 10-K for 2004
- Hospira 8-K, September 3, 2015
- Johnson & Johnson: Consumer Health separation plan, November 12, 2021
- Kenvue 10-K for 2025
- Bristol-Myers Squibb 8-K, Mead Johnson split-off, December 2009
- Mead Johnson 8-K, February 13, 2017
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