Morton Capital Management LLC CA Sells 158 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Morton Capital Management LLC CA trimmed its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 7.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,087 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 158 shares during the quarter. Morton Capital Management LLC CA’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $236,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ABT. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,720,429 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $8,746,896,000 after purchasing an additional 2,323,807 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,903,198 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $3,963,974,000 after buying an additional 488,764 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,810,977 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,942,709,000 after purchasing an additional 280,441 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,319,347 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,518,539,000 after purchasing an additional 2,711,586 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,102,204 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,265,762,000 after purchasing an additional 585,915 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on ABT shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI boosted 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. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $131.57.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

NYSE ABT opened at $113.85 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $115.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $112.65. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $99.71 and a 1 year high of $121.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The company has a market cap of $197.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.60, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.73.

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

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. This is a boost from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 66.87%.

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.