Abbott Laboratories

How has the stock done?

Change in closing price from the first day shown, or with Price the closing price itself. Prices: Yahoo Finance, to Nov 12, 2026. Dashed lines: the days the company released earnings (its SEC 8-K filings); EPS estimates: Yahoo Finance. The stock's move after a release runs from the last close before its day to the close the day after (or five days after), so a release before the open counts like one after the close.

Is the business growing?

In the fiscal year to Dec 2025, Medical Devices was 48% and Diagnostics was 20% of revenue; Medical Devices rose from 42% in the fiscal year to Dec 2023.

In the fiscal year to Dec 2025, United States was 39% and All Other Countries was 36% of revenue.

Quarters: Abbott Laboratories's SEC filings, named by the month they end. Fiscal years: Abbott Laboratories's annual reports to the SEC.

How it makes money

Of every $100 in revenue, $14.7 ends up as net income. Net margin fell from 15.9% to 14.7% over the past 3 years.

Circled: Dec 2024 (net 84.1%, operating 17.4%). Net margin is usually about 2 points below operating margin; in that quarter something below operating income (a tax charge or benefit, a gain or loss on investments, a write-down) moved it, not the business itself.

Each margin is that line of the income statement divided by revenue. Fiscal year: Abbott Laboratories's annual reports to the SEC; quarters: SEC filings.

How much goes into research?

Abbott Laboratories spent $3.3B on research and development in the four quarters to Sep 2026, 6.9% of its revenue, against 6.7% a year earlier. Over the year its research spending rose 12.1% and its revenue rose 10.0%.

From Abbott Laboratories's SEC filings: research and development expense by quarter, the fourth being the year minus nine months; its share is the four quarters' expense over their revenue. Some companies count the research they buy, through licences and acquisitions, in this line, so it jumps in the quarter they pay; others report that on a line of its own, not shown here.

Is it expensive?

P/E of 39.9x, above the peer median of 24.8x, so it needs earnings to keep growing to hold up.

Priced 61% above the peer median of 24.8x.

At 39.9× trailing earnings ABT is above most of its five-year range; the five-year median is 30.0×.

Closing price over diluted earnings per share of the last four reported quarters, as known on each day (a quarter counts 35 days after it ends). From SEC filings; earnings per share adjusted for splits.

What analysts expect

The average analyst price target is $119, 11% above the current price; 82% of 28 analysts rate it a buy; earnings beat estimates in 2 of the last 4 quarters.

Buy or Strong Buy: 23 analysts (82%). Sell or Strong Sell: 0.

Over the past year the average of the analysts' latest price targets went from $145.25 to $121.71 (−16%), while ABT went from $129.26 to $107.25 (−17%). In the past three months targets were raised 7 times and cut 5 times. 3 upgrades and 1 downgrade over the year; the latest: Argus Research moved it to Hold from Buy on Oct 27, 2026.

The day after each of these reports the stock moved −11.0% (Dec 2025, beat); −4.7% (Mar 2026, in line); +12.8% (Jun 2026, beat); +0.1% (Sep 2026, in line).

For the quarter ending Dec 2026 (Abbott Laboratories reports on Jan 28, 2027), analysts expect adjusted earnings of $1.64 a share, 9% more than the $1.50 of a year earlier, and revenue of $13.2B, up 15% on a year earlier. For the fiscal year ending Dec 2027, they expect adjusted earnings of $5.94 a share, 8% more than the year before's estimate of $5.52, and revenue of $53.5B, up 7% on the year before's estimate.

Targets, ratings and earnings estimates: Yahoo Finance. Rating and target changes: Yahoo Finance's list of upgrades and downgrades. The average target on each day is the average of every listed firm's latest target set in the 180 days before it, so it counts fewer analysts than the average target above, and the band is the middle half of those targets (a quarter of the firms are above it, a quarter below); a target set before a stock split is divided by the split. Expected figures: the average of the analysts' estimates (Yahoo Finance). Their EPS is adjusted, as analysts estimate it, so it is set against the adjusted EPS Yahoo reports for the same quarters, not the GAAP EPS of the growth and valuation sections; revenue against the SEC filings. No change is given against a quarter whose reported EPS was more than 50% off its own estimate (often a one-off gain or charge), nor against a year that counts one. Each estimate is pinned to its fiscal period by the report date or the period's end, and one that cannot be is left out.

Where the cash goes

Generated $6.8B in free cash flow over the year, of which $5.9B went back to shareholders (dividends plus buybacks), leaving $900M in the company.

Abbott Laboratories had 1.74B diluted shares in the quarter ended Sep 2026, 0.7% fewer than a year earlier, and 0.4% fewer each year on average since Jun 2020. It spent $1.5B on buybacks over the last four quarters. Over the last four quarters its earnings per share fell 66.3% and its net income fell 66.4%: fewer shares added about 0 points.

Free cash flow: operating cash flow minus capital spending on property, plant and equipment, from SEC filings, for the last 4 quarters and by quarter. Shares: each quarter's diluted weighted average as filed with the SEC, since the stock's listing and its latest split.

Financial health

Current ratio 1.6, no pressure to repay short-term debt; debt-to-equity 0.2, debt is very low and the balance sheet is solid.

Latest fiscal year balance sheet. Source: Yahoo Finance.

Who holds it

In the filings of 4 members of Congress and 8 funds whose copy leaves ABT out (not traded on the exchange): WELLCOME TRUST LTD (THE) as trustee of the WELLCOME TRUST, Dan Meuser, Tom Kean Jr., Mirae Asset Global Investments, Swiss National Bank, Norges Bank and 6 more.

What did the funds Hunch tracks do?

Of the 83 funds whose 13F filings Hunch reads, 16 held ABT at the end of their latest quarter (for most, Q2 2026). Over that quarter 4 added shares, 8 cut, 1 sold all and 4 held the same. The largest of them is Norges Bank, 23.35M shares worth $2.1B at Jun 30, 2026, 0.4% fewer than at Dec 31, 2025.

From the 13F filings of the 83 funds Hunch tracks, not of every institution: each fund's shares of ABT at its latest quarter end against the quarter before, as filed (long positions only, options left out), the quarter before put on the latest quarter's share count across a split. A fund files 45 days after its quarter ends, so some have a newer quarter than others. Value is at the quarter end. Norges Bank filed its 13F for Q1 2026 confidentially, with no holdings made public, so its row compares Q2 2026 with Q4 2025.

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