Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Holdings Decreased by Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC

Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC trimmed its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 21.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,000 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 2,500 shares during the quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,018,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Welch Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 68,653 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,744,000 after acquiring an additional 3,479 shares during the last quarter. Bath Savings Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Bath Savings Trust Co now owns 166,132 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $18,791,000 after acquiring an additional 5,881 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 152,719 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $17,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,774 shares during the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 67.3% in the 3rd quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,083 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,606,000 after acquiring an additional 5,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pensionfund Sabic bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,828,000. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on ABT. UBS Group upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Argus upgraded Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Abbott Laboratories stock opened at $133.21 on Friday. 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 cap of $231.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.75. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $120.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $116.65. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $99.71 and a fifty-two week high of $133.28.

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

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders 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. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend 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.