HB Wealth Management LLC Purchases 14,259 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

HB Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 113,306 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,259 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $12,816,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,720,429 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $8,746,896,000 after purchasing an additional 2,323,807 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,903,198 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $3,963,974,000 after purchasing an additional 488,764 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased 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 worth $2,942,709,000 after purchasing an additional 280,441 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 25.6% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,102,204 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,265,762,000 after purchasing an additional 585,915 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ABT. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Raymond James reissued a “buy” rating and set a $129.00 target price (up from $122.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Monday, October 14th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a 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.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.57.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of ABT stock traded down $0.46 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $113.45. The company had a trading volume of 6,443,213 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,199,178. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $115.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $112.66. The company has a market cap of $196.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.73. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $99.71 and a 12 month high of $121.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.14 earnings per share. Abbott Laboratories’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.87%.

Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

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.