PUREfi Wealth LLC Acquires New Shares in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

PUREfi Wealth LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 8,778 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock, valued at approximately $993,000. Abbott Laboratories comprises 1.0% of PUREfi Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 152,719 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $17,274,000 after buying an additional 2,774 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 31,489 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,562,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares in the last quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP now owns 130,102 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $14,716,000 after purchasing an additional 2,701 shares in the last quarter. Campbell Wealth Management increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 206.5% in the fourth quarter. Campbell Wealth Management now owns 5,468 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $619,000 after purchasing an additional 3,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Planning Inc bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the fourth quarter worth $320,000. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total transaction of $3,054,573.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 price target (up from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of ABT stock opened at $130.63 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $118.67 and a 200 day moving average of $115.82. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $132.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.34. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 31.95%. The firm had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. 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 dividend yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 30.85%.

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.