Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Price Target Raised to $135.00 at Stifel Nicolaus

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) had its price target boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $130.00 to $135.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the healthcare product maker’s stock.

ABT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 target price for the company. Raymond James reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $129.00 price objective (up from $122.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Monday, October 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.50.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $125.12 on Thursday. 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 firm’s 50-day moving average price is $115.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $113.31. Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week low of $99.71 and a 52-week high of $125.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73.

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

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Abbott Laboratories

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 848.8% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 216,337 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $22,480,000 after acquiring an additional 193,537 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 4.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 871,196 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $90,421,000 after purchasing an additional 38,676 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 10,675,827 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,103,997,000 after buying an additional 508,524 shares during the period. Dundas Partners LLP grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.1% during the second quarter. Dundas Partners LLP now owns 330,227 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $34,313,000 after buying an additional 6,897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DSM Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. DSM Capital Partners LLC now owns 9,131 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $949,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.