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AbbVie (ABBV) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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AbbVie (ABBV - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $88.93, moving +1.43% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.3%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.5%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 2.95%.

Coming into today, shares of the drugmaker had gained 7.46% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 3.55%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.21%.

ABBV will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 25, 2019. In that report, analysts expect ABBV to post earnings of $1.92 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 29.73%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $8.36 billion, up 8.07% from the year-ago period.

ABBV's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.93 per share and revenue of $32.78 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +41.61% and +16.17%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for ABBV. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.95% higher. ABBV is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, ABBV is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 11.05. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.58.

We can also see that ABBV currently has a PEG ratio of 0.82. 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. ABBV's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.01 as of yesterday's close.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 78, putting it in the top 30% 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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