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Abbott (ABT) Stock Moves -0.23%: What You Should Know

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Abbott (ABT - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $106.79, moving -0.23% from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.44%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.62%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.5%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had lost 6.05% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's gain of 1.54% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.39% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from ABT as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.36, up 43.16% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $9.92 billion, up 19.3% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.57 per share and revenue of $33.84 billion. These totals would mark changes of +10.19% and +6.08%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the 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.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.02% higher. ABT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note ABT's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 29.95. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 34.38.

Also, we should mention that ABT has a PEG ratio of 2.43. 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 3.39 at yesterday's closing price.

The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 120, which puts it in the top 48% 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.

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


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