Abbott Laboratories $ABT Shares Sold by Welch & Forbes LLC

Welch & Forbes LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 577,781 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 17,348 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $57,102,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 14.1% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 84,377 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $8,339,000 after acquiring an additional 10,431 shares during the last quarter. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the third quarter worth about $658,000. Aureus Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 25.0% in the first quarter. Aureus Asset Management LLC now owns 331,920 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $34,078,000 after purchasing an additional 66,422 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 786.0% in the second quarter. Thompson Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,061 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,276,000 after purchasing an additional 12,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,889,000. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

ABT stock opened at $110.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $103.99 and a 200 day moving average of $101.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The company has a market cap of $191.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.20, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.54. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $81.97 and a 1 year high of $132.02.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The healthcare product maker reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 17.97% and a net margin of 9.75%. The firm had revenue of $13.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.30 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.52 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be paid a $0.63 dividend. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is presently 94.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on ABT. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $112.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised Abbott Laboratories from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $119.00 to $127.00 in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $118.00 price objective (up from $115.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $118.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Mary Moreland sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.00, for a total value of $406,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 100,791 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,691,756. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets medical devices, diagnostic tests, nutritional products and branded generic medicines. Its products serve patients and healthcare professionals in hospitals, clinics and other care settings.

Abbott’s offerings include the FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring system, cardiovascular and other medical devices, laboratory and rapid diagnostic tests, and nutrition brands such as Ensure and Similac.