How Will Abbott Laboratories Stock React To Its Upcoming Earnings?

April 14th, 2025 by Trefis Team
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ABT: Abbott Laboratories logo
ABT
Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) is scheduled to report its earnings on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Analysts anticipate earnings of $1.07 per share on sales of $10.41 billion for the first quarter. This represents an increase compared to the prior-year quarter, which saw earnings of $0.98 per share on sales of $9.96 billion. The company’s diabetes product, Freestyle Libre, is expected to be a key driver of this sales growth.

Abbott currently has a market capitalization of $220 billion, with a revenue of $42 billion and operating profits of $6.8 billion over the last twelve months, resulting in a net income of $13 billion. While the stock’s reaction to the upcoming earnings will depend on how the results and outlook compare to investor expectations, historical data from the past five years shows that ABT stock has dropped one day post earnings 60% of the time, with a median fall of 2.4% and a maximum negative return of -6.5%.

This historical trend can be valuable for event-driven traders, who might either position themselves before the announcement based on these odds or analyze the correlation between immediate and medium-term returns to potentially enter a trade the day after the earnings release. That said, if you seek upside with lower volatility than individual stocks, the Trefis High-Quality portfolio presents an alternative – having outperformed the S&P 500 and generated returns exceeding 91% since its inception.

See earnings reaction history of all stocks

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Image by Tatiana from Pixabay

Abbott Laboratories’ Historical Odds Of Positive Post-Earnings Return

Some observations on one-day (1D) post-earnings returns:

  • There are 20 earnings data points recorded over the last five years, with 8 positive and 12 negative one-day (1D) returns observed. In summary, positive 1D returns were seen about 40% of the time.
  • Notably, this percentage increases to 50% if we consider data for the last 3 years instead of 5.
  • Median of the 8 positive returns = 3.5%, and median of the 12 negative returns = -2.4%

Additional data for observed 5-Day (5D), and 21-Day (21D) returns post earnings are summarized along with the statistics in the table below.

ABT observed 1D, 5D, and 21D returns post earnings

Correlation Between 1D, 5D, and 21D Historical Returns

A relatively less risky strategy (though not useful if the correlation is low) is to understand the correlation between short-term and medium-term returns post earnings, find a pair that has the highest correlation, and execute the appropriate trade. For example, if 1D and 5D show the highest correlation, a trader can position themselves “long” for the next 5 days if 1D post-earnings return is positive. Here is some correlation data based on 5-year and 3-year (more recent) history. Note that the correlation 1D_5D refers to the correlation between 1D post-earnings returns and subsequent 5D returns.

ABT Correlation Between 1D, 5D and 21D Historical Returns

Learn more about Trefis RV strategy that has outperformed its all-cap stocks benchmark (combination of all 3, the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000), to produce strong returns for investors. Separately, if you want upside with a smoother ride than an individual stock like Abbott Laboratories, consider the High Quality portfolio, which has outperformed the S&P, and clocked >91% returns since inception.

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