Abbott (ABT) closed at $122.09 in the latest trading session, marking a -2.39% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.35% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.45%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.14%.
Shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs have depreciated by 1.01% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Medical sector's gain of 5.67%, and the S&P 500's gain of 1.2%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Abbott in its forthcoming earnings report. In that report, analysts expect Abbott to post earnings of $1.5 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 11.94%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $11.79 billion, indicating a 7.48% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $5.15 per share and a revenue of $44.6 billion, demonstrating changes of +10.28% and +6.33%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Abbott. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To take advantage of this, we've established the Zacks Rank, an exclusive model that considers these estimated changes and delivers an operational rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0% lower. Abbott is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Abbott has a Forward P/E ratio of 24.29 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 18.71.
Also, we should mention that ABT has a PEG ratio of 2.28. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. The Medical - Products industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.97 as of yesterday's close.
The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 155, which puts it in the bottom 38% 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
