The latest trading session saw Abbott (ABT) ending at $132.65, denoting a +1.4% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock exceeded the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.55% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 1.01%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 0.14%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had lost 5.21% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's loss of 3.93% and was narrower than the S&P 500's loss of 6.22% in that time.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Abbott in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's earnings report is set to be unveiled on April 16, 2025. In that report, analysts expect Abbott to post earnings of $1.07 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 9.18%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $10.39 billion, showing a 4.28% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.15 per share and revenue of $44.35 billion, which would represent changes of +10.28% and +5.73%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Abbott. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. Right now, Abbott possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Abbott's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 25.43. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 18.38 for its industry.

We can additionally observe that ABT currently boasts a PEG ratio of 2.44. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. The Medical - Products industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.11 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - Products industry is part of the Medical sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 172, placing it within the bottom 32% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.

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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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