Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Has $194.96 Million Position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,710,023 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 109,500 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $194,960,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ABT. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 5,737 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $596,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 2nd quarter valued at $266,000. Brookstone Capital Management increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 41,771 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $4,373,000 after buying an additional 1,573 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 2.9% during the second quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 25,103 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $2,608,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 6.0% in the second quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 6,218 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $646,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ABT shares. Oppenheimer started coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies started coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 price target on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.71.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $113.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $116.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $111.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.67 billion, a PE ratio of 34.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.73. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.55 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. Analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 66.87%.

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.