Barclays Raises Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Price Target to $143.00

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) had its price target lifted by analysts at Barclays from $140.00 to $143.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the healthcare product maker’s stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 37.90% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $121.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Citigroup decreased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $128.00 to $119.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Raymond James reissued a “buy” rating and set a $124.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $121.00.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ABT traded down $1.54 during trading on Monday, hitting $103.70. The company had a trading volume of 9,369,365 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,897,173. The stock has a market cap of $180.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.72. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $89.67 and a one year high of $121.64. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $109.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $10.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.37 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 13.65%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Lisa D. Earnhardt sold 22,852 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.25, for a total value of $2,428,025.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,530,337.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Lisa D. Earnhardt sold 22,852 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.25, for a total value of $2,428,025.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,530,337.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jr. Robert E. Funck sold 10,097 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.57, for a total value of $1,055,843.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 211,341 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,099,928.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Abbott Laboratories

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ABT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth $2,115,836,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 165,301,921 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $18,788,216,000 after purchasing an additional 8,834,840 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 86,588,614 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $9,530,825,000 after purchasing an additional 7,527,778 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 70,177,564 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,976,382,000 after purchasing an additional 5,882,780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 12,577.8% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,772,670 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $415,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,742,912 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

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.