Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Price Target Cut to $140.00 by Analysts at Barclays

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) had its target price cut by Barclays from $141.00 to $140.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the healthcare product maker’s stock.

ABT has been the topic of a number of other reports. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $126.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $121.50.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $106.89 on Monday. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $89.67 and a 1 year high of $121.64. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $113.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $107.96. The firm has a market cap of $185.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.30, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.74.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.02. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 13.96%. The business had revenue of $9.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.03 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 68.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John A. Jr. Mccoy sold 472 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total value of $55,932.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,760 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,223,060. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, VP John A. Jr. Mccoy sold 472 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total value of $55,932.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,760 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,223,060. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 78,704 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,444,480. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 56,435 shares of company stock worth $6,451,298. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Abbott Laboratories

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought 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 position 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 during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its stake 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 worth $415,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,742,912 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,009,838 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $551,434,000 after purchasing an additional 1,477,671 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 2.3% in 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 buying an additional 1,457,847 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.