Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Shares Purchased by CX Institutional

CX Institutional lifted its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 14.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,243 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,790 shares during the quarter. CX Institutional’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,611,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,720,429 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $8,746,896,000 after buying an additional 2,323,807 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,903,198 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $3,963,974,000 after buying an additional 488,764 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,810,977 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,942,709,000 after acquiring an additional 280,441 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 25.6% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,319,347 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,518,539,000 after purchasing an additional 2,711,586 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,102,204 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,265,762,000 after purchasing an additional 585,915 shares during the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays lifted 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. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $132.50.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $125.12 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $217.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $115.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $113.15. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $125.67.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.34. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11,029,400 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.95% and a return on equity of 20.74%. Abbott Laboratories’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.19 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 30.85%.

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.