Balanced Wealth Group LLC Has $372,000 Position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Balanced Wealth Group LLC cut its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,607 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 260 shares during the quarter. Balanced Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $372,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the 1st quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 1,677.8% in the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 320 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total value of $16,492,852.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,617,068.19. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on ABT. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $121.00 price target for the company. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 price target on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies began coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $123.33.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Abbott Laboratories stock opened at $113.69 on Friday. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $89.67 and a 1 year high of $121.64. The company has a market capitalization of $197.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

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

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 68.54%.

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.