New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Decreases Stock Position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board cut its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 83,002 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 2,100 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $9,388,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 152,719 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $17,274,000 after buying an additional 2,774 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 31,489 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,562,000 after buying an additional 507 shares in the last quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP now owns 130,102 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $14,716,000 after buying an additional 2,701 shares in the last quarter. Campbell Wealth Management raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 206.5% in the fourth quarter. Campbell Wealth Management now owns 5,468 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $619,000 after buying an additional 3,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Planning Inc acquired a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at $320,000. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 target price (up previously from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Argus upgraded Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four equities 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Abbott Laboratories stock 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. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $99.71 and a 1 year high of $132.65. The company has a market capitalization 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. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $118.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $115.82.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 30.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the business’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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. The trade was a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Abbott Laboratories

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.