Last Trading Date: New York, Feb 6 2026
- Abbott shares rose 1.60% to $110.83 in the last trading session on Friday, February 6, before slipping about 0.34% in after-hours trading, as investors digested the company’s latest guidance update amid mixed broader market conditions.
- Recent analyst price target cuts from firms including Barclays, RBC Capital, and Leerink Partners weighed on sentiment, though Abbott continues to hold a Moderate Buy consensus rating, supported in part by insider buying and long-term confidence in its medical devices pipeline.
- Traders are now focused on upcoming FDA decisions tied to the FreeStyle Libre franchise, new cardiovascular and electrophysiology data, and progress toward closing the Exact Sciences acquisition, all of which could act as near-term catalysts for the stock.
Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) climbed during the most recent U.S. trading session on Friday, February 6, 2026, as investors absorbed the latest corporate guidance and market sentiment ahead of key catalysts on the calendar. The healthcare giant’s stock closed up 1.60 % at $110.83 in regular trading, outperforming some peers in the medical space but still lagging broader benchmarks. In after-hours trading, ABT dipped modestly, trading around $110.45, down approximately −0.34 % from the regular session close as of early extended hours activity.(marketwatch)
Abbott’s latest price action comes against the backdrop of the company’s January earnings guidance update, which saw the firm set Q1 2026 EPS guidance of $1.120–$1.180 and full-year adjusted EPS of $5.550–$5.800, slightly below some Wall Street expectations. The fourth-quarter revenue figures of $11.46 billion also came in short of consensus forecasts, spotlighting ongoing headwinds in the Nutrition and diagnostics segments.(MarketBeat)
Market participants noted that Abbott’s stock has been under pressure in recent months, including a sharp sell-off following the January earnings release that marked one of the company’s steepest one-day drops in years.(wsj) Against that backdrop, the modest uptick on Friday was viewed as a mild rebound rather than full vindication, with broader market indexes also showing mixed behavior late in the week. The S&P 500 was recently sliding, down roughly 1.2 % in its session as of February 6, while the Nasdaq Composite declined by about 1.6 %, reflecting sector rotation and profit-taking across equities.(Yahoo Finance)
Analysts have been actively adjusting their outlooks on ABT as investors weigh the company’s near-term prospects. Barclays lowered its price target from $169 to $142 while maintaining an Overweight rating, a move that helped spark earlier price volatility. RBC Capital trimmed its target to $135, and Leerink Partners cut its target to $119 while assigning a Market Perform rating, reflecting caution around slower segment growth. Bernstein SocGen also reduced its objective to $125 from prior levels, citing a surprising sales miss and decelerating business lines. Argus revised its view lower to a $140 target, while Sanford C. Bernstein recently dropped its target from $154 to $125. Despite these adjustments, the consensus analyst rating remains a Moderate Buy alongside an average target near the mid-$130s, indicating some optimism about longer-term fundamentals.(gurufocus)
Analysts have pointed out that Abbott’s insider buying activity, including recent purchases by CEO Robert Ford, has been interpreted by some investors as a signal of confidence in the stock’s longer-term value. Still, near-term concerns around consumer demand for key products and regulatory developments around certain devices, including FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring sensors, remain on traders’ radars.
For context, despite Friday’s gain, Abbott’s performance trails major indices: while tech and industrial stocks helped lift the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 during mid-week rebounds, ABT’s healthcare weighting and recent weak segment performance contributed to a more muted advance.(Investors)