Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Earns Overweight Rating from Analysts at Piper Sandler Companies

Piper Sandler Companies started coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in a report released on Thursday morning, Stock Target Advisor reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $131.00 price objective on the healthcare product maker’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on ABT. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Edward Jones cut shares of Abbott Laboratories from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They issued a buy rating and a $121.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $123.33.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of Abbott Laboratories stock opened at $113.70 on Thursday. Abbott Laboratories has a twelve month low of $89.67 and a twelve month high of $121.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.72.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.04. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.65% and a return on equity of 20.18%. The business had revenue of $10.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 68.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Abbott Laboratories news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total transaction of $16,492,852.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,617,068.19. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Abbott Laboratories

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ABT. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Transcendent Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 1st quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.