WBH Advisory Inc. Reduces Holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

WBH Advisory Inc. lowered its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 19.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,712 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 1,896 shares during the period. WBH Advisory Inc.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $872,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ABT. Groupama Asset Managment raised its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 22.2% during the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 228,448 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 41,557 shares during the period. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 78.4% in the third quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 289 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Highline Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the third quarter worth $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total transaction of $3,054,573.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares in the company, valued at $16,152,064.50. The trade was a 15.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $158.00 target price (up from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $130.63 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $226.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.75. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $118.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.14. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $132.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.34. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 31.95%. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 30.85%.

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.