Abbott (ABT) closed the most recent trading day at $131.30, moving -0.15% from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.67%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.61%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 1%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had gained 1.64% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's loss of 1.06% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 10.65% in that time.

The upcoming earnings release of Abbott will be of great interest to investors. In that report, analysts expect Abbott to post earnings of $1.25 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 9.65%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $11.04 billion, showing a 6.38% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $5.16 per share and a revenue of $44.66 billion, signifying shifts of +10.49% and +6.47%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Abbott. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

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 last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed an unchanged state. Abbott presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Abbott is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 25.5. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 18.13.

It is also worth noting that ABT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.48. 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. Medical - Products stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.1 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 154, placing it within the bottom 38% of over 250 industries.

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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.

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

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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