Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Price Target Cut to $125.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) had its target price cut by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $128.00 to $125.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the healthcare product maker’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target suggests a potential upside of 16.51% from the company’s previous close.

ABT has been the topic of several other research reports. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $126.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.31.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 1.9 %

ABT stock opened at $107.29 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $186.17 billion, a PE ratio of 33.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.64. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $114.19 and its 200 day moving average is $107.65. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $89.67 and a one year high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $9.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.88 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.96% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 42,500 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.50, for a total transaction of $4,781,250.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 65,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,315,537.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 42,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.50, for a total value of $4,781,250.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 65,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,315,537.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 78,704 shares in the company, valued at $9,444,480. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,435 shares of company stock valued at $6,451,298 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Abbott Laboratories

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 104,649.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 30,247,436 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,320,866,000 after purchasing an additional 30,218,560 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,115,836,000. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 9.5% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 7,527,778 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 38,966,499 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $4,278,132,000 after purchasing an additional 4,886,954 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 12,577.8% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,772,670 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $415,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,742,912 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.