311,327 Shares in Abbott Laboratories $ABT Bought by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 311,327 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock, valued at approximately $31,428,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ABT. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter worth $1,603,607,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter worth $1,082,524,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the second quarter valued at $902,938,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the second quarter valued at $732,788,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 4.6% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 152,563,476 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $13,843,610,000 after buying an additional 6,769,518 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $118.00 target price (up from $115.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 24th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $119.00 to $127.00 in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $118.32.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:ABT opened at $109.43 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $101.91. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $81.97 and a 12-month high of $132.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $189.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.83, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.54.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The healthcare product maker reported $1.42 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $12.99 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 94.03%.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of medical products and services. Founded in 1888 by Wallace C. Abbott, the company is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, and serves patients, healthcare providers and consumers in markets around the world.

Abbott operates across four principal businesses: medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition and established pharmaceutical products. Its offerings include glucose-monitoring systems such as FreeStyle Libre; cardiovascular devices, including stents and structural heart products; laboratory and point-of-care diagnostic systems; and branded generic medicines in areas such as gastroenterology, women’s health and cardiometabolic care.

The company’s nutrition portfolio includes infant and pediatric products such as Similac and PediaSure, adult nutritional products such as Ensure, and rehydration products such as Pedialyte.