Piper Sandler Initiates Coverage on Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Investment analysts at Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in a report issued on Thursday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage set an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 price target on the healthcare product maker’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price suggests a potential upside of 14.04% from the stock’s current price.

ABT has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Barclays raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Edward Jones lowered Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $121.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.64.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

NYSE ABT opened at $114.87 on Thursday. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $89.67 and a 12-month high of $121.64. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $110.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $108.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $199.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.72.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.04. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.65%. The company had revenue of $10.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In related news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total transaction of $16,492,852.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 220,059 shares in the company, valued at $25,617,068.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Abbott Laboratories

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ABT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 165,301,921 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $18,788,216,000 after buying an additional 8,834,840 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 86,588,614 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $9,530,825,000 after acquiring an additional 7,527,778 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 70,177,564 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $7,976,382,000 after acquiring an additional 5,882,780 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the first quarter worth $341,777,000. Finally, Sessa Capital IM L.P. purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the second quarter valued at $264,876,000. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.