Yahoo Finance Abbott (ABT) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Abbott (ABT) closed the most recent trading day at $102.82, moving +0.8% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.99% gain on the day.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had lost 8.73% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's loss of 3.51% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.42% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Abbott as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Abbott to post earnings of $1.04 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 27.27%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $9.67 billion, down 14.08% from the year-ago period.
ABT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.38 per share and revenue of $39.36 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -17.98% and -9.83%, respectively.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Abbott. 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.
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.
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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.07% higher. Abbott currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Abbott is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 23.27. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 22.06, so we one might conclude that Abbott is trading at a premium comparatively.
We can also see that ABT currently has a PEG ratio of 4.57. 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 industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.45 as of yesterday's close.
The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 47, putting it in the top 19% 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Abbott Laboratories (ABT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
