Long Road Investment Counsel LLC Sells 200 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Long Road Investment Counsel LLC lowered its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,770 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Long Road Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ABT. Groupama Asset Managment raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 228,448 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 41,557 shares in the last quarter. Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. NewSquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 78.4% in the 4th quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 239 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Eric Shroff sold 562 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.17, for a total transaction of $77,651.54. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,970 shares in the company, valued at $4,417,294.90. The trade was a 1.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total value of $3,054,573.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 116,449 shares of company stock valued at $15,463,316 over the last 90 days. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Argus raised Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $158.00 price target (up from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.94.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

NYSE:ABT opened at $127.54 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $127.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $119.58. The company has a market cap of $221.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.70. Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week low of $99.71 and a 52-week high of $141.23.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34. The firm had revenue of $10.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.03 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 31.95%. The business’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.