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Abbott (ABT) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Abbott (ABT - Free Report) closed at $135.27, marking a +0.21% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.78%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.61%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.95%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had gained 7.76% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's loss of 0.46% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.63% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Abbott as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Abbott to post earnings of $1.16 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 20%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $10.43 billion, down 2.56% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.05 per share and revenue of $42.07 billion, which would represent changes of +38.36% and +21.57%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Abbott should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.05% higher. Abbott is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, Abbott currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 26.71. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 23.27.

Meanwhile, ABT's PEG ratio is currently 2.23. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Medical - Products was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.97 at yesterday's closing price.

The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 188, putting it in the bottom 26% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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