Reasons to Retain Abbott Stock in Your Portfolio Now

Abbott Laboratories’ ABT strong sales recovery within the Nutrition business, driven by the robust sales performance of Ensure, is poised to drive growth in the upcoming quarters. Within Diabetes Care, ABT is driving robust growth through its flagship, sensor-based CGM system — FreeStyle Libre. However, currency fluctuations and a dull macroeconomic scenario may restrict Abbott’s growth potential.

Over the past year, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s shares have lost 22% compared with the industry’s 23.2% decline. The S&P 500 composite grew 16%.

The leading at-home healthcare company has a market capitalization of $231.46 billion. Abbott beat on earnings in two of the trailing four quarters and matched in the remaining two, delivering an average surprise of 0.7%.

ABT’s Tailwinds

Sales Recovery Within Nutrition: Abbott’s Nutrition business demonstrates steady growth and market share gains. Adult Nutrition remains a core strength of the portfolio. Abbott’s Ensure brand continues to be the primary revenue-generating component of Adult Nutrition. International markets continue to represent an important source of demand for Adult Nutrition products, including Ensure and Glucerna, which support balanced nutrition and dietary management for people with diabetes.

To reposition the Nutrition business for more sustainable, volume-driven growth, Abbott has begun implementing price and promotion initiatives and is increasing its focus on product innovation, an area that was deprioritized in recent years due to supply-chain and manufacturing constraints. Following the launch of two new versions of Ensure late in 2025, Abbott expects to introduce at least eight new Nutrition products over the next 12 months.

Libre Drives Diabetes Care: Abbott’s Diabetes Care business continues to benefit from strong adoption of its flagship sensor-based continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system, FreeStyle Libre. In the fourth quarter of 2025, sales of continuous glucose monitors grew 12%, while full-year 2025 CGM sales increased 17% and exceeded $7.5 billion. This marked the third consecutive year in which Abbott’s CGM business grew more than $1 billion.

Growth remained broad-based across the United States and international markets, reflecting strong underlying demand, expanding adoption across user groups, and Abbott’s leadership in cost, scale, and innovation.

Following the FDA clearance in 2024, the company has begun launching its over-the-counter CGM systems, Lingo and Libre Rio, extending Libre-based sensing technology into the consumer wellness and broader Type 2 diabetes markets, and reinforcing the long-term growth opportunity for its Diabetes Care franchise.

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Concerns for ABT

Choppy Macro Environment to Weigh on Margins: Abbott faces a challenging macro environment marked by tariffs, geopolitical uncertainty, and persistently high input and manufacturing costs, especially in its Nutrition segment. Despite disciplined execution in fourth-quarter 2025, these external pressures could again weigh on performance if pricing, mix, or volume softens.

Foreign Exchange Translation Impacts Sales: Abbott’s significant international exposure makes its revenues sensitive to foreign exchange movements, particularly in emerging markets. As a result, a portion of its near-term reported sales growth depends on external currency dynamics rather than underlying demand, introducing volatility and limiting visibility into the sustainability of reported growth.

Abbott’s Estimate Trend

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings per share has moved south 2 cents to $5.66 in the past 30 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 revenues is pegged at $47.07 billion, indicating a 7.6% rise from the year-ago reported number.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Globus Medical GMED, Phibro Animal Health PAHC and Intuitive Surgical ISRG.

Globus Medical has an earnings yield of 5.2%, well ahead of the industry’s -1.6% yield. Its earnings surpassed estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed on one occasion, the average surprise being 18.8%. The company’s shares have rallied 15.9% against the industry’s 7.5% decline over the past year.

GMED sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Phibro Animal Health, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 at present, has an earnings yield of 6.1% compared with the industry’s 2.6% return. Shares of the company have soared 156.6% against the industry’s 20.5% decline. PAHC’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 20.2%.

Intuitive Surgical, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present, has an earnings yield of 2.1% against the industry’s 0.7% decline. Shares of the company have lost 6.2% compared with the industry’s 7.4% decline. ISRG’s earnings topped estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 13.2%.

5 Stocks Set to Double

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Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.

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Abbott Laboratories (ABT): Free Stock Analysis Report

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG): Free Stock Analysis Report

Globus Medical, Inc. (GMED): Free Stock Analysis Report

Phibro Animal Health Corporation (PAHC): Free Stock Analysis Report

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