Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Stake Lessened by Rhumbline Advisers

Rhumbline Advisers decreased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,181,319 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 28,139 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $359,840,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABT. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted 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 valued at $359,000 after buying an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 808,863 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $91,400,000 after acquiring an additional 50,592 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 33.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,185 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,845,000 after purchasing an additional 4,080 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 45,022 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $5,133,000 after purchasing an additional 1,422 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its stake in 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 valued at $23,815,000 after purchasing an additional 2,958 shares during the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Argus raised Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com lowered Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.06.

Insider Activity

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.9 %

Abbott Laboratories stock opened at $130.63 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $99.71 and a 12 month high of $132.65. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $118.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $115.82. The stock has a market cap of $226.56 billion, a P/E 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 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. The company had revenue of $10.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 30.85%.

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.