Bank of America Increases Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Price Target to $150.00

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) had its target price upped by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $133.00 to $150.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the healthcare product maker’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 13.15% from the stock’s previous close.

ABT has been the subject of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com lowered Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.94.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

NYSE ABT opened at $132.57 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $119.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.33, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.69. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $99.71 and a fifty-two week high of $141.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.03 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 31.95%. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lisa D. Earnhardt sold 91,167 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.82, for a total value of $12,199,967.94. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 71,928 shares in the company, valued at $9,625,404.96. This represents a 55.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 116,449 shares of company stock valued at $15,463,316. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Abbott Laboratories

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ABT. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 0.5% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 557,608 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $63,573,000 after purchasing an additional 2,754 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 13.4% during the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 4,103 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $468,000 after purchasing an additional 486 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the third quarter worth about $1,044,000. United Bank raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 1.8% during the third quarter. United Bank now owns 27,284 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 11.4% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 132,020 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $15,052,000 after purchasing an additional 13,523 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

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.