Jim Woods, editor of Bullseye Stock Trader, chose Abbott Laboratories (ABT) as his top conservative investment idea for 2019. The stock has since risen 16%. Here's his latest update on the healthcare firm.
Diversified medical device maker Abbott Laboratories has gotten off to a solid start in 2019, despite the political headwinds swirling around the healthcare sector.
The company’s shares started the year markedly higher but pulled back in April after Democratic presidential candidates, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, began shouting a collective chorus of “Medicare for all.”
And while many healthcare stocks fell victim to that rhetoric, the big selling was short lived. Since then, the stock — as well as other strong healthcare stocks — are back up near 52-week highs.
As I always stress to readers of my Bullseye Stock Trader advisory service, it’s an absolute necessity to own stocks with strong earnings growth. Like cream, great companies with strong earnings and strong products pipelines tend to quickly rise to the top.
That description continues to apply to ABT, as its earnings growth track record is stellar. That growth is expected to continue in its next earnings release, which is slated for July 17.
Analysts are expecting ABT to come in with earnings per share (EPS) of 80 cents, or nearly 10% year-over-year growth in EPS. The company also is slated to deliver strong revenue, with net sales of $7.99 billion, or a near-3% increase from the prior year.
Abbott Laboratories is a proven, steady performers with a solid dividend and strong share price appreciation potential. That’s why I like it for the remainder of 2019, and likely well beyond. (Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Jim Woods was long ABT in his Bullseye Stock Trader advisory service.)
