Abbott Laboratories is engaged in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of a line of health care products. Co. has four reportable segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, which sells a line of branded generic pharmaceutical products internationally; Nutritional Products, which sells adult and pediatric nutritional products; Diagnostic Products, which sells diagnostic systems and tests for blood banks, hospitals, commercial laboratories and alternate-care testing sites; and Cardiovascular and Neuromodulation Products, which include rhythm management, electrophysiology, heart failure, vascular and structural heart devices for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. We show 36 historical shares outstanding datapoints in our ABT shares outstanding history coverage, used to compute ABT market cap on those dates.
Understanding the changing numbers of shares outstanding, the changing
share price, and the resulting changing ABT market cap history over the course of time is important for investors
interested in comparing ABT's market cap history versus its peers.
Many "beginner" or "novice" investors will look at one stock trading at a price of $10 per share and another trading at
a price of $20 per share and think the latter company is worth twice as much. Of course, that is a completely meaningless comparison without also knowing how many shares outstanding there are for each of the two companies,
and then calculating their respective market caps. Comparing the share price of ABT versus a peer is one thing; comparing
ABT market cap versus a peer is a completely different story.
Furthermore, via fluctuation both in per-share price and in the number of shares outstanding (via issuance of new shares over time, the repurchase of existing shares),
the market cap for a company like ABT can fluctuate over the course of history.
With this page we aim to empower investors researching ABT by allowing them to research the ABT market cap history. |
Video: The Importance of Market Cap
