Elefante Mark B Boosts Position in Abbott Laboratories $ABT

Elefante Mark B boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 43,648 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,910 shares during the quarter. Abbott Laboratories comprises 3.7% of Elefante Mark B’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Elefante Mark B’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $5,846,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Carr Financial Group Corp raised its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.0% during the third quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 3,880 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $520,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 795 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Gemmer Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Gemmer Asset Management LLC now owns 2,750 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $368,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 12,555 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Global Financial Private Client LLC boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 2,469 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $331,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded Abbott Laboratories from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Daiwa Securities Group decreased their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $136.00 to $113.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Leerink Partners cut their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $136.00 to $119.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Raymond James Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, William Blair raised shares of Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $137.05.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, Director Daniel J. Starks acquired 10,000 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $108.73 per share, with a total value of $1,087,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,738,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $732,711,572.41. This represents a 0.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of ABT stock opened at $112.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.70. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $105.27 and a 52 week high of $141.23. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $118.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $126.00. The company has a market capitalization of $195.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.75.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 14.72% and a return on equity of 17.94%. The company had revenue of $11.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.34 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Abbott Laboratories has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.120-1.180 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.550-5.800 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 15th were paid a $0.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 15th. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is a positive change from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.74%.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of medical products and services. Founded in 1888, Abbott operates through multiple business areas that focus on diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and established pharmaceuticals. The company supplies hospitals, clinics, laboratories, retailers and direct-to-consumer channels with products intended to diagnose, treat and manage a wide range of health conditions.

In diagnostics, Abbott provides laboratory and point-of-care testing platforms and assays used to detect infectious diseases, chronic conditions and biomarkers; its Alinity family of instruments and rapid-test solutions are examples of this capability.