ABT
Same story, new angle
Abbott’s not exactly getting a victory lap this week. The stock got dinged after Q1 results, but BTIG’s Marie Thibault came in with the classic Wall Street version of “don’t overreact”: a Buy rating and a fresh $131 price target.
What’s bothering investors?
The company kept 2026 sales growth at 6.5% to 7.5%, even after folding in the faster-growing Exact Sciences business. That sounds good on paper, but the market is side-eyeing the fact that Abbott also trimmed its adjusted EPS outlook to $5.38 to $5.58, down from $5.55 to $5.80.
Thibault’s read? The softer tone may reflect caution in a few areas — think Respiratory, CGM, and Structural Heart — rather than a full-blown stumble. And Abbott still expects sales to re-accelerate in the back half of the year, helped by nutrition recovery, better electrophysiology and core lab growth, and the integration of its cancer diagnostics deal.
Why you should care
This is the kind of setup that can make a stock look like it’s caught between two storylines: near-term margin pain, long-term growth hope. If Abbott can get Libre back to double-digit growth and deliver on those product launches and reimbursement catalysts, the “upside” thesis starts to look less like analyst cheerleading and more like an actual trading setup.
Big picture: investors are trying to figure out whether Abbott’s latest guidance reset is a temporary digestion problem or a sign the growth engine needs a tune-up.