Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $121.50.

ABT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $128.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Raymond James restated a “buy” rating and set a $124.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $126.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $141.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

NYSE ABT opened at $104.94 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $112.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $108.85. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $89.67 and a 1 year high of $121.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $182.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $9.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.88 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.62 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is 68.54%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Lisa D. Earnhardt sold 22,852 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.25, for a total transaction of $2,428,025.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 61,462 shares in the company, valued at $6,530,337.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,444,480. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Lisa D. Earnhardt sold 22,852 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.25, for a total value of $2,428,025.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,530,337.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,787 shares of company stock worth $4,098,073 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 156,467,081 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $17,222,332,000 after acquiring an additional 701,740 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 9.5% during 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 last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 64,294,784 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,077,148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,457,847 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 32,236,101 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,548,228,000 after acquiring an additional 1,027,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 23,016,235 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,229,122,000 after acquiring an additional 343,559 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.