Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Shares Sold by Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC

Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC cut its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 51.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,375 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 5,778 shares during the quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $608,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ABT. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in 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 last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the second quarter worth approximately $264,876,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,720,429 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $8,746,896,000 after buying an additional 2,323,807 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 13,194.9% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,679,805 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $191,515,000 after acquiring an additional 1,667,170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 9,764,061 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,144,818,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180,040 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ABT shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $131.57.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

ABT opened at $113.45 on Friday. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $99.71 and a 12-month high of $121.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $196.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.48, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $115.00 and a 200-day moving average of $112.66.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.64 billion for 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.14 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 66.87%.

Abbott Laboratories 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.