Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Shares Purchased by Accretive Wealth Partners LLC

Accretive Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,629 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after buying an additional 133 shares during the quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,542,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.9% during the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 3,153 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $359,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 6.7% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 808,863 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $91,400,000 after purchasing an additional 50,592 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 33.7% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,185 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,845,000 after purchasing an additional 4,080 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.3% during the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 45,022 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $5,133,000 after buying an additional 1,422 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont increased its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 208,881 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $23,815,000 after buying an additional 2,958 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. This trade represents a 15.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $158.00 price target (up from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $130.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $118.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $115.82. Abbott Laboratories has a 1-year low of $99.71 and a 1-year high of $132.65. The company has a market cap of $226.56 billion, a PE ratio of 17.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.75.

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

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.