Traders Buy High Volume of Abbott Laboratories Call Options (NYSE:ABT)

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 71,494 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 640% compared to the average daily volume of 9,665 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Groupama Asset Managment raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 22.2% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 228,448 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 41,557 shares in the last quarter. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the third quarter worth $31,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 2nd quarter worth about $32,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 78.4% during the third quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 289 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of ABT stock traded up $2.71 during trading on Thursday, hitting $113.81. The company had a trading volume of 3,614,968 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,728,905. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $121.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.73. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $115.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $112.67.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.01. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.99% and a return on equity of 20.18%. The company had revenue of $10.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.14 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a boost from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 66.87%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer began coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 target price on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.57.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The company provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Ménière’s disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon.