Abbott Gains in Nutrition With Adult Segment Leading Growth

Abbott Laboratories’ ABT Nutrition business has consistently demonstrated strong growth and market share gains. This segment offers a broad line of pediatric and adult nutritional products. Despite some ongoing softness in a few international markets for pediatric products, the overall Nutrition business is expanding on strong global demand for the company’s adult nutrition offerings that provide a combination of high protein and low sugar to help people optimize their health and wellness.

Post the COVID-19 pandemic, people have become more conscious about the impact of an unhealthy lifestyle. This had a positive impact on the nutritional supplements industry. In addition, the rising rates of non-communicable diseases have led to a quicker adoption of nutritional supplements aimed at improving overall health. Based on these factors, analysts predicted the global nutritional supplements market size to reach $704.28 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 6.42% from 2025 to 2030 (per Grand View Research).

The segment continues to benefit from strong demand for Ensure and Glucerna, Abbott’s market-leading brands that support complete and balanced nutrition and help manage dietary requirements for people with diabetes. Within Pediatric Nutrition, Abbott enjoyed continued strength in the United States, where the Similac brand remains the top choice for American parents. Furthermore, during the second quarter of 2025, the company reported mid-single-digit organic growth within this business, led by 6.6% organic growth in Adult Nutrition.

Offerings by ABT’s Peers in the Nutrition Space

Nestles’ NSRGY Nutrition business provides science-based products and solutions for mothers, babies and children. Additionally, its Health Science business supports healthier lives by offering an extensive portfolio of science-based consumer care and medical nutrition. Nestle’s nutrition portfolio covers every life stage, from infant formula to medical nutrition and adult nutrition. Infant and Child Nutrition products include NAN (infant formulas) and Cerelac (infant cereals), among many others. The Adult & Performance Nutrition portfolio includes products like Boost (nutritional drinks for adults and the elderly) and Vital Proteins (collagen-based supplements).

Danone DANOY provides specialized nutrition with its portfolio divided into Early Life Nutrition and Medical Nutrition. In the early life category, Danone offers a wide range of infant and child nutrition products under well-known brands such as Aptamil, Nutrilon, Cow & Gate, and Bledina, covering infant formula, follow-on formula and baby food. Through its Nutricia division, Danone offers products like Neocate (for cow’s milk protein allergy), Fortimel and Fortisip (oral nutritional supplements), and specialized enteral feeding formulas such as Nutrison, Nutrini and Peptisorb. Additionally, Danone provides condition-specific solutions like FortiCare for oncology patients and Diasip for those with diabetes.

ABT Price Performance

Year to date, Abbott shares have surged 16.5%, outperforming the industry’s 5.9% growth. The S&P 500 composite grew 9.6% in the same period.

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Discounted Valuation

ABT currently trades at a forward 12-month Price-to-Sales (P/S) of 4.89X compared with the industry average of 5.56X.

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ABT Stock Estimate Trend

In the past 30 days, ABT’s EPS estimate has moved south 0.2% for 2025.

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ABT stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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