WR Wealth Planners LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

WR Wealth Planners LLC reduced its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 32.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 917 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 440 shares during the quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $104,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the fourth quarter worth about $30,813,000. Flputnam Investment Management Co. lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 125,523 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $14,198,000 after buying an additional 5,168 shares during the period. Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. now owns 61,657 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $6,974,000 after buying an additional 530 shares during the period. VELA Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 35,636 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $4,031,000 after buying an additional 1,197 shares during the period. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 16,708 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,890,000 after buying an additional 396 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target 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 reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Argus upgraded Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $158.00 target price (up previously from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Four research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $137.99 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 stock has a market capitalization of $239.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.04, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $123.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.83. Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week low of $99.71 and a 52-week high of $138.37.

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

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 30.85%.

Insider Transactions at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the business’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 value of $3,054,573.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,152,064.50. The trade was a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.