Oppenheimer Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Stock Price

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) had its price objective lowered by research analysts at Oppenheimer from $132.00 to $115.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the healthcare product maker’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price target indicates a potential upside of 18.69% from the stock’s current price.

ABT has been the topic of several other reports. Evercore reduced their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $138.00 to $134.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 6th. Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $131.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Friday. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $147.00 to $135.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $121.00.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NYSE:ABT opened at $96.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $168.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.79. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $93.92 and a 12-month high of $139.06. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $118.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.01. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 17.71% and a net margin of 13.90%.The firm had revenue of $11.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.09 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Abbott Laboratories has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.380-5.580 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.250-1.310 EPS. Analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In related news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 885 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.58, for a total transaction of $102,288.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 146,377 shares in the company, valued at $16,918,253.66. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Daniel J. Starks purchased 10,000 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was bought at an average price of $108.73 per share, with a total value of $1,087,300.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 6,738,817 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $732,711,572.41. This trade represents a 0.15% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 3,055 shares of company stock worth $353,097 over the last ninety days. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 175,556,716 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $21,995,501,000 after purchasing an additional 2,402,408 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,853,782 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $10,004,880,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627,791 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 63,229,445 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,922,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614,706 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 12,439.6% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 39,319,009 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $4,926,279,000 after buying an additional 39,005,451 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,169,239 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $4,907,523,000 after buying an additional 400,400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Abbott Laboratories

Here are the key news stories impacting Abbott Laboratories this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Preliminary settlement reached in six shareholder derivative suits tied to Abbott’s U.S. infant‑formula business, reducing litigation overhang for investors. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New data on Cancerguard MCED (multi‑cancer early detection) presented at AACR 2026 — important for Abbott’s growth thesis since the Exact Sciences deal expanded its oncology diagnostics exposure. Continued clinical progress supports longer‑term revenue upside. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Insiders added roughly $3.1M of stock, and a number of analysts still see upside — some calling the post‑acquisition pullback a buying opportunity given valuation and Abbott’s dividend track record. Read More. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Q1 results: adjusted EPS $1.15 (vs. $1.14 est.) and revenue $11.16B (vs. $10.99B); company set FY 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $5.38–$5.58 and Q2 guide to $1.25–$1.31, explicitly including ~$0.20 of dilution from the Exact Sciences acquisition. Investors are parsing beat vs. the guidance change. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings call transcript and analyst commentary emphasize medical‑device strength offset by Diagnostics/Nutrition softness and acquisition-related margin pressure — useful for active traders but mixed for near‑term stock direction. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction: shares fell after the print because Abbott trimmed guidance and flagged Nutrition weakness and margin compression; coverage shows the takeover (≈$21–23B) is dilutive near term. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Many brokers lowered price targets and some cut forecasts following Q1/guidance — several firms kept positive ratings but reduced targets (examples include RBC, Jefferies, Raymond James, Citi and others), amplifying short‑term selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst notes and headlines highlighted the EPS guidance cut and Nutrition slump as primary reasons for the earlier drop — these remain catalysts to watch for the next quarter. Read More.

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.