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Abbott (ABT) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Abbott (ABT - Free Report) closed at $132.37 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.04% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.31%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.1%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.48%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had gained 4.74% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 3.92% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.04% in that time.

Abbott will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.16, down 20% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $10.41 billion, down 2.75% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.05 per share and revenue of $42.05 billion, which would represent changes of +38.36% and +21.5%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Abbott should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Abbott is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Abbott has a Forward P/E ratio of 26.22 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 23.65.

It is also worth noting that ABT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.18. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Medical - Products was holding an average PEG ratio of 2 at yesterday's closing price.

The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 183, putting it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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