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Abbott (ABT) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Abbott (ABT - Free Report) closed at $75.64 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.81% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.28%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.39%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.45%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had lost 0.64% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 3.9% and outpacing the S&P 500's loss of 1.59% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from ABT as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, ABT is projected to report earnings of $0.80 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 9.59%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $7.99 billion, up 2.82% from the year-ago period.

ABT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.22 per share and revenue of $31.92 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +11.81% and +4.4%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for ABT. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. ABT is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, ABT is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 23.71. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 25.13.

It is also worth noting that ABT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.15. 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. Medical - Products stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.2 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 103, which puts it in the top 41% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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