ABT US S&P 500Russell 1000 Earnings call · transcribed from the recording

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) · Q3 2026 results and valuation

Share price: $109.29 · 2026-11-11

Abbott Laboratories develops, manufactures, and sells a diverse range of healthcare products, including pharmaceuticals, diagnostic systems, medical devices, and nutritional products. The company serves customers such as healthcare providers, government agencies, and consumers in global markets. Source: 10-K annual report (2026-02-20)

Results Q3 2026 vs Q2 2026 · previous quarter · published 21 Oct 2026 and 16 Jul 2026

Net income down 0.9% on the previous quarter. Management sounded very upbeat, though noticeably less so answering analysts.

1 · Numbers

−0.9%

Net income vs Q2 2026

Net income 920.0M vs 928.0M

Revenue +3.3%

2 · How management spoke

Very upbeat

More upbeat than 96% of company calls

Answers to analysts: upbeat, but clearly less so than the script.

Last call it was different: script and answers matched.

3 · What stood out

Figure

Abbott Laboratories' operating margin of 23.4% expanded by 40 basis points compared to the prior year.

Valuation

Is Abbott Laboratories undervalued?

Reverse DCF. Free cash flow from the last full fiscal year (2025-12-31), grown for 10 years, discounted back, plus a terminal value. “Implied growth” is the rate the current price assumes.

At 0.5% growth a year (3-year revenue growth), the model's fair value is $30.43 a share — the stock trades 259% above it. Today's price assumes 14.6% growth a year.

Current price

$109.29

close of 2026-11-11

Market implies growth of i

+14.6% for 10 yrs

Fair value / share

$30.43

Buy below

$22.83

Price vs fair value

Overvalued >200%

Price vs buy-below price

Overvalued >200%

FCF growth / yr i Discount rate i Terminal growth i Margin of safety i

Official channels

The company's own website and social media accounts.

Read between the lines

Figure

With approximately $8.5 billion in annual sales, 16,000 employees, and 14 manufacturing sites, this will be the largest globally scaled pure play company in the healthy nutrition market.
Figure

In cancer diagnostics, sales growth of 14% was driven by Cologuard and contributions to growth from Abbott Laboratories' precision oncology and international businesses.
Key theme

Excluding the current profile of the nutrition business from the current profile of the Abbott portfolio, Abbott Laboratories would expect sales growth to accelerate by 50 to 100 basis points, gross margin as a percent of sales to increase by more than 200 basis points, and an operating margin as a percent of sales to increase by approximately 100 basis points.
Figure

In rhythm management, sales grew 10%, driven by increased adoption of AVER across both single and dual chamber segments of the pacemaker market.
Key theme

The Abbott portfolio will consist of an even stronger mix of higher growth, higher margin businesses, powered by technology and innovation.

3 more

Key theme

Along with reporting its third quarter results, Abbott Laboratories announced its intention to separate its nutrition business into an independent, publicly traded company.
Figure

Sales grew 7% in the third quarter and earnings per share grew 9%, representing acceleration and growth on both top and bottom lines compared to Abbott Laboratories' results in the first half of the year.
Key theme

In electrophysiology, Abbott Laboratories' third quarter results reflect the early beginning of its growth acceleration phase.

Tone

How upbeat the language was, compared with other companiesi. Dot: Q3 2026. Ring: Q2 2026.

Prepared remarks Very upbeat (was upbeat)

Answers to analysts Upbeat (was upbeat)

Management sounded noticeably less positive answering analysts than in its prepared script — a bigger drop than in 96% of calls. Scripts are polished in advance; a drop under questioning often marks the topics analysts pressed on, so the answers deserve a closer read than the script.

Sentences that drove the tone

“With market-leading positions, an industry-leading pipeline, and a proven ability to consistently generate strong earnings growth and cash flow, Abbott is exceptionally well-positioned to deliver sustainable growth and create long-term...”

“At the same time, Abbott has strategically repositioned its portfolio over the past decade into attractive, high-growth markets that require sustained investment to drive innovation and support long-term growth.”

“International growth also accelerated as we continue to capture market share in Europe, driven by increasing uptake of our new PFA catheters and growth in other categories across our broad...”

Full figures

USD · SEC EDGAR XBRL (10-Q, period end 2026-09-30)

Metric	Q3 2026period end 2026-09-30	Q2 2026period end 2026-06-30	Change	Q3 2025	YoY
Revenue	13.01B	12.59B	+3.3%	11.37B	+14.5%
Gross profit	7.38B	7.27B	+1.6%	6.29B	+17.3%
Operating income	1.36B	1.69B	−19.8%	2.06B	−34.0%
Net income	920.0M	928.0M	−0.9%	1.64B	−44.0%
EPS	0.53	0.53	±0%	0.94	−43.6%
P/E today 40.9	36.7	29.4	+7.3	16.8	+19.9

Topics

Most discussed now

New Abbott Laboratories is investing in a lot of stroke prevention technologies.
What was once predominantly viewed as a healthcare business market, almost exclusively shaped by healthcare professionals, has increasingly…
It's a pretty big announcement for it, and Abbott Laboratories has gone through a lot of work to be able to make...
Abbott Laboratories is seeing a shift towards a much more healthy nutrition behavior from consumers, not just in this country but around...
Abbott Laboratories is going to have all the things that you would expect and probably leave the actual specific guidance range for...

Faded since Q2 2026

Fading Abbott Laboratories also remains on track to begin patient enrollment in the fourth quarter for several important clinical trials that…
Fading Abbott Laboratories is showing good growth in TAVR here in The US, but it has gotta do a better job.
Dropped Updated outlook for the remainder of the year, Abbott Laboratories is reaffirming its full year guidance for comparable sales growth of...
Dropped I have seen competitive intensity increase there in that here in the U.S.

Latest announcements

Official filings, newest first. Summaries are generated from each filing and its attachment; every figure is checked against the source.

2026-10-21 Other events · SEC 8-K
Abbott plans to spin off its Nutrition business into an independent company with approximately $8.5 billion in annual sales, while Abbott will have sales of approximately $42 billion.
2026-10-21 Results of operations · SEC 8-K
Abbott reported third-quarter 2026 sales of $13.013 billion, representing a 14.5 percent increase over the previous year, with a GAAP diluted EPS of $0.53.
2026-08-20 Regulation FD disclosure; Other events · SEC 8-K
Abbott entered into agreements to resolve the Gill case and claims involving approximately 2,000 other individuals for an aggregate amount of approximately $670 million.
2026-07-16 Results of operations · SEC 8-K
Abbott reported second-quarter sales growth of 13.0 percent on a reported basis and 4.8 percent on a comparable basis, with adjusted diluted EPS of $1.31.
2026-04-27 Director or officer change; Articles or bylaws amended; Shareholder vote results · SEC 8-K
Abbott Laboratories appointed Kevin Conroy to the Board, approved the 2026 Incentive Stock Program for up to 140,000,000 shares, and increased the number of board members from twelve to thirteen.
2026-04-17 Other events · SEC 8-K
The court signed an order on April 10, 2026, preliminarily approving a proposed settlement for the consolidated shareholder derivative litigation regarding infant formula products.
2026-04-16 Results of operations · SEC 8-K
Abbott reported first-quarter sales increased 7.8 percent on a reported basis and 3.7 percent on a comparable basis, with adjusted diluted EPS of $1.15 reflecting growth of 6 percent.
2026-03-23 Other events · SEC 8-K
Abbott completed the acquisition of Exact Sciences on March 23, 2026, to enter the $60 billion U.S. cancer screening and precision oncology diagnostics segments.