Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Price Target Raised to $149.00 at Barclays

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) had its price target raised by Barclays from $143.00 to $149.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the healthcare product maker’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on ABT. UBS Group boosted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Edward Jones lowered shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies initiated coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 target price on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $130.07.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ABT opened at $116.59 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.72. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $115.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $109.19. 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 has a 1 year low of $92.43 and a 1 year high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $10.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.14 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of Abbott Laboratories 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,617,068.19. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ABT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 8,834,840 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $7,976,382,000 after buying an additional 5,882,780 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in 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 valued at $1,103,997,000 after acquiring an additional 508,524 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 27.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,428,752 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $771,940,000 after acquiring an additional 1,596,835 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 8.5% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,683,586 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $761,996,000 after purchasing an additional 524,683 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is 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.