apricus wealth LLC Acquires 699 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

apricus wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 17.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,594 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 699 shares during the quarter. apricus wealth LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $520,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Gradient Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 280,294 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $31,704,000 after purchasing an additional 3,772 shares during the period. Curated Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 15,609 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,766,000 after buying an additional 1,889 shares during the period. CX Institutional boosted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 14,243 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,611,000 after acquiring an additional 1,790 shares in the last quarter. Encompass More Asset Management raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 3,936 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $445,000 after acquiring an additional 587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Southland Equity Partners LLC raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. Southland Equity Partners LLC now owns 7,726 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $874,000 after purchasing an additional 794 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James restated a “buy” rating and set a $129.00 price target (up from $122.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Monday, October 14th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.50.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 1.5 %

ABT opened at $125.12 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $217.01 billion, a PE ratio of 16.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $115.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $113.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $125.67.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.34. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11,029,400 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 31.95%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. Analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is 30.85%.

Abbott Laboratories 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.