Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Shares Sold by Americana Partners LLC

Americana Partners LLC lowered its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 14.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,655 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 2,006 shares during the period. Americana Partners LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,318,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Performance Advisors LLP increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP now owns 2,137 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $242,000 after acquiring an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth $77,000. Monument Capital Management increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Monument Capital Management now owns 1,972 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $223,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 16,032 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,813,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth $2,359,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ABT. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Argus upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

ABT opened at $130.63 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $118.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $116.14. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $99.71 and a fifty-two week high of $132.65. The firm has a market cap of $226.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.75.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.34. The business 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. This is a positive change from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.85%.

Insider Transactions at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total transaction of $3,054,573.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. This 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 is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Company 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.