Yahoo Finance Abbott (ABT) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Abbott (ABT) closed at $79.62 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.65% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.09%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.21%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.34%.
Heading into today, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had lost 5.95% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 3.27% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.17% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from ABT as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 16, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.84, up 12% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $8.10 billion, up 5.81% from the year-ago period.
ABT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.24 per share and revenue of $31.93 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +12.5% and +4.43%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for ABT. 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.
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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. ABT currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, ABT currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 24.72. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 25.85, which means ABT is trading at a discount to the group.
Investors should also note that ABT has a PEG ratio of 2.25 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Medical - Products was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.47 at yesterday's closing price.
The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 91, putting it in the top 36% 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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