Many forms of criminal activity generate significant amounts of money. To avoid attracting the attention of law enforcement, criminals must find a way to disguise the source of their ill-gotten funds. That’s the goal of money laundering, which involves criminals engaging in a series of transactions to conceal the criminal origins of their money.

Money laundering involves three stages:

1. A criminal (or those under their direction) introduces funds earned through criminal activity to the financial system.
2. A money launderer (or the criminal themselves) engages in a series of transactions to create layers between the illegal source of the cash they control.
3. The criminal moves laundered money back into the financial system.

The layering process

During the layering stage, the goal is to disconnect the money from the illegal activity that generated it. Generally, the more layers money passes through, the harder it becomes to connect the funds to criminal activity.

The goal of layering is to make the process of tracking money through each layer more difficult to accomplish. Layering can include changing the nature of the assets, i.e. cash, gold, casino chips, real-estate, etc.

Complex layering schemes involve sending the money around the globe using a series of transactions. The more countries the money enters and leaves, the harder it is to uncover the “dirty” source of the money.

Layering and AML

A complex layering scheme makes anti-money laundering (AML) operations challenging. Since they lack jurisdiction overseas, law enforcement must coordinate with their foreign counterparts, which can delay the tracking of the funds while complicating the document trail associated with the funds.

To complicate matters further, criminals often use shell companies, which engage in fraudulent transactions, such as the creation of fake invoices. Once the company receives payment for the fake invoice, those who control the shell company can return the proceeds or send them to another shell company as payment for a subsequent fake invoice.

Layering can involve electronic transactions such as wires and ACHs, paper transactions, and/or manual movement of the funds between countries using covert means. Those laundering the funds may also decide to use non-traditional financial systems, such as Hawala (Middle East), Hundi (India), or Hui Kuan (Hong Kong), which are alternative remittance systems that allow for the movement of money without doing so physically.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT), a Medical Devices corporation, was a bullish stock in the prior trading session. Abbott Laboratories (ABT) stock started the day for trading at $91.85 and closed the day at $92.09 with negative move of -0.21%. This decrease move beat the Dow’s -0.31% lose for the prior trading session.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is focused on the Medical Devices sector. This sector has seen some movement from investors in recent trading sessions. Bullish investors of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) will be looking for positive upcoming earnings whereas bearish investors of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) will be looking for negative earnings. The last time Abbott Laboratories (ABT) had an earnings surprise was on Qtr Ending 03/20 when they reported $0.65 compared to an estimate of $0.55 which was a difference of $+0.10 resulting in a change of +18.18%. Current earnings estimates are to be released for Current Qtr 06/2020 on Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and out of 9 Wall Street estimates the average is saying $0.41. The high estimate is saying $0.50 whereas the low estimate is saying $0.29 and the prior year Abbott Laboratories (ABT) announced earnings at $0.82 a growth rate est. (year over year) of -50.00%.

The market performance of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) has varied recently. Year to date Abbott Laboratories (ABT)’s shares are up 6.02%. Over the past 12 weeks Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is up 2.93% and over the last 4 weeks Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is up 15.92%. Abbott Laboratories (ABT) current income statement shows revenue (ttm) of $32.1B. Gross Profit is $18.71B. This puts the current EBITDA of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) at $8.03B.

Wall street investors might also notice recent changes to stock analyst estimates for Abbott Laboratories (ABT). The stock is trading with an RSI (relative strength index) of 57.17 indicating Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is neither overbought nor oversold. Technically, ABT’s short term support levels are around $3.54, $2.82 and $1.97 on the downside. ABTs short term resistance levels are $6.00, $5.50 and $5.32 on the upside. The market cap of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is $162.394B and institutions hold 76.91% of the stock. The outstanding share count stands at 1.79B while the short float (shares short) stands at 1.02%.

Research shows that these earning estimate changes look to be directly correlated with short-term stock prices. The investors can look to capitalize on the basis of ranking. Abbott Laboratories (ABT) has short term rating of Bullish (0.40), Intermediate rating of Neutral (0.23) and long-term rating of Bullish (0.44) giving Abbott Laboratories (ABT) an overall rating of Bullish (0.36).

The EPS growth this year on Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is increased 45.20% and is expected to increase 29.75% next year. However, quarterly earnings (EPS) growth year over year on Abbott Laboratories (ABT) has increased by 41.60% and quarterly revenue (Sales) growth year over year stands at 7.10%. Gross margin is detected at 58.50% that represents the percent of total sales revenue that the company retains after direct cost of goods sold. Net profit margin (ttm) is 10.30% while return on equity (ttm) is 10.50%.

Recent Developments:

2020-04-27 – U.S. FDA In Letter Dated April 26, Authorizes Emergency Use Of Abbott’s SARS-CoV-2 IgG Assay.
2020-04-16 – Abbott Reports Q1 GAAP EPS From Continuing Operations Of $0.30.
2020-04-15 – Abbott Launches Third Covid-19 Test, A Laboratory-Based Antibody Blood Test That Will Ship In The U.S. Starting Tomorrow.
2020-03-18 – Abbott Receives FDA Authorization And Launches Test To Detect Coronavirus.
2020-02-19 – FDA Says Abbott Vascular Recalls NC Trek RX And NC Traveler RX Coronary Dilatation Catheters Due To Failure Of Balloon To Deflate.

About Company:

Abbott Park, IL-based Abbott discovers, develops, manufactures and sells a diversified line of health care products. Established Pharmaceuticals Division (EPD) includes branded generics business in the emerging markets. The division accounted for 14% of total sales in 2019 and registered organic growth of 7.

Apache Corporation (APA), a Oil & Gas E&P corporation, was a gaining stock in the stock market session. Apache Corporation (APA) stock opened the day for trading at $12.20 and closed the day at $11.79 with negative move of -2.00%. The decrease change in Apache Corporation (APA) beat the change in the S&P 500 for the day which losed -2.05% in stock market session.

Apache Corporation (APA) is focused on the Oil & Gas E&P sector. This market sector has seen some movement from investors in recent days. Bullish investors of Apache Corporation (APA) will be looking for positive upcoming earnings whereas bearish investors of Apache Corporation (APA) will be looking for negative earnings. The last time Apache Corporation (APA) had an earnings surprise was on Qtr Ending 03/20 when they reported -$0.13 compared to an estimate of -$0.30 which was a difference of $+0.17 resulting in a change of +56.67%. Current earnings estimates are to be released for Current Qtr 06/2020 on Apache Corporation (APA) and out of 9 Wall Street estimates the average is saying -$0.93. The high estimate is saying -$0.16 whereas the low estimate is saying -$1.48 and the prior year Apache Corporation (APA) announced earnings at $0.11 a growth rate est. (year over year) of -945.45%.

The market performance of Apache Corporation (APA) has varied recently. Year to date Apache Corporation (APA)’s shares are down -52.99%. Over the past 12 weeks Apache Corporation (APA) is down -56.03% and over the last 4 weeks Apache Corporation (APA) is up 43.56%. Apache Corporation (APA) current income statement shows revenue (ttm) of $5.89B. Gross Profit is $4.63B. This puts the current EBITDA of Apache Corporation (APA) at $3.46B.

Wall street investors might also notice recent changes to stock analyst estimates for Apache Corporation (APA). The stock is trading with an RSI (relative strength index) of 59.49 indicating Apache Corporation (APA) is neither overbought nor oversold. Technically, APA’s short term support levels are around $14.51, $13.98 and $13.01 on the downside. APAs short term resistance levels are $23.50, $22.70 and $22.24 on the upside. The market cap of Apache Corporation (APA) is $4.45B and institutions hold 99.95% of the stock. The outstanding share count stands at 378.00M while the short float (shares short) stands at 13.15%.

Stock market research indicates that these financial estimate changes look to be directly correlated with short-term stock prices. The investors can look to capitalize on the basis of ranking. Based on technical analysis, APA has short term rating of Bullish (0.26), Intermediate rating of Neutral (-0.02) and the long-term rating of Bearish (-0.25) giving it an overall rating of Neutral (-0.01).

The EPS growth this year on Apache Corporation (APA) is expected to increase 48.10% next year. However, quarterly revenue (Sales) growth year over year stands at -25.30%. Gross margin is detected at 74.50% that represents the percent of total sales revenue that the company retains after direct cost of goods sold while return on equity (ttm) is -215.00%.

Recent Developments:

2020-04-20 – Apache Sees Q1 Unrealized Gain On Commodity Derivatives (Before Tax) Of $17 Mln.
2020-04-03 – Apache Corp Says CEO’s 2019 Total Compensation Was $14.3 Mln Vs $15.2 Mln In 2018 – SEC Filing.
2020-03-12 – Apache Corp Announces Revised Capital Guidance And Dividend Reduction.
2020-03-04 – Apache Says Clay Bretches Named Executive Vice President Of Operations.
2020-02-27 – Apache Says Q1 Alpine High Volumes Will Be Slightly Below Q4 Levels.