ABT vs. MDLN: Abbott Laboratories vs. Medline Stock Comparison

Company Profile

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and Medline (MDLN) both belong to the Health Care Equipment & Supplies industry, though ABT is classified under Health Care Equipment while MDLN falls under Health Care Supplies.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) has been public since March 17, 1980, giving it decades of market history across multiple cycles, while Medline (MDLN) listed only on December 17, 2025 and lacks comparable through-cycle data.

Price Performance

Cumulative Growth

Trailing Returns

Calendar-Year Returns

Performance Metrics

Risk Profile

Drawdown History

Return Distribution

Risk Metrics

Medline (MDLN) reports a negative beta of -0.93, suggesting inverse market sensitivity over the measurement window. That is uncommon for ordinary equities and can reflect commodity-linked or hedge-like exposure, but it can also come from statistical noise. Abbott Laboratories (ABT) has a non-negative beta of 0.53.

Risk-Adjusted Performance

Risk-Return Positioning

Both ABT and MDLN need 1-year volatility and 1-year return to plot risk-return positioning.

Risk-Adjusted Metrics

Profitability

Both Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at 9.14% and Medline (MDLN) at 4.85% land near their industries’ usual ROE ranges, so capital efficiency looks broadly in line with peers on both sides.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at 9.75% retains a top-quartile share of revenue as profit, ahead of Medline (MDLN) at 1.85%, which keeps about the industry-typical share.

Both Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at 11.66% and Medline (MDLN) at 5.22% run core operations about as efficiently as their industries’ norm — neither stands out on operating profitability.

Profitability Metrics

Growth

Only one side can be read here: Abbott Laboratories (ABT) reports revenue growth of 5.67%, ranked against its industry; Medline (MDLN) has no revenue growth figure this period.

Medline (MDLN) at 117.38% delivers above-range EPS growth, while Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at -51.31% falls into the bottom quartile — a wide split in earnings momentum.

Growth Metrics

Financial Strength

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at 1.46 keeps current ratio within its industry’s typical mid-range, while Medline (MDLN) at 4.04 sits above its industry’s typical mid-range — comfortable liquidity, though possibly with more idle current assets relative to peers.

Both Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at 0.61 and Medline (MDLN) at 0.65 fund their balance sheets with roughly industry-typical debt-to-equity mixes.

Financial Strength Metrics

Dividends

Medline (MDLN) pays no dividend (yield 0.00%) — it may be reinvesting, using buybacks, or simply not returning cash through dividends. Meanwhile Abbott Laboratories (ABT) reports a yield of 2.22%, ranking against industry peers normally.

Medline (MDLN) pays no dividend (payout 0.00%) — it may be reinvesting, using buybacks, or simply not returning cash through dividends. Meanwhile Abbott Laboratories (ABT) reports a payout of 92.54%, ranking against industry peers normally.

Dividend Metrics

Valuation

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at 41.02 is near its industry’s usual P/E ratio, while Medline (MDLN) at 90.09 sits above its peer range — an unusually expensive price for MDLN’s trailing earnings.

On P/S ratio, both Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at 3.95 and Medline (MDLN) at 1.70 are priced roughly in line with their industries — neither looks cheap nor rich on a sales basis.

On P/B ratio, both Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at 3.73 and Medline (MDLN) at 2.95 are valued close to their industries’ norm against book — neither stands out from peers.

Valuation Metrics