Abbott Laboratories, which employs almost 3,000 people in Ireland, reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, helped by improved profit margins for its medical diagnostics and vascular products businesses.

The company earned $466 million, or 30 cents per share, in the quarter. That compared with $476 million, or 30 cents, in the year-earlier period, when Abbott took charges for cost-saving initiatives and other expenses.

Excluding special items, Abbott earned 54 cents per share. Analysts, on average, expected 51 cents.

Sales rose 1.9 per cent to $5.55 billion, a bit above Wall Street estimates of $5.52 billion.

"Our gross margins were better than some expected due to underlying improvement in diagnostics and vascular" products, company spokesman Scott Stoffel said.

The suburban Chicago-based company raised its full-year profit forecast to between $2.19 and $2.29 per share, from $2.16 to $2.26 per share.

Abbott shares rose 2.5 per cent to $42.20 in premarket trading.

Reuters