Grove Street Fiduciary LLC Takes Position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Grove Street Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 2,771 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock, valued at approximately $368,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 51,719 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $5,850,000 after acquiring an additional 4,755 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 152,719 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $17,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,774 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 652,656 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $73,822,000 after purchasing an additional 38,231 shares in the last quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 4th quarter worth about $242,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 66.4% during the 4th quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $398,000 after purchasing an additional 1,406 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of ABT stock opened at $125.90 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $129.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market cap of $219.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.73. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $99.92 and a one year high of $141.23.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.26. The firm had revenue of $11.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.01 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 32.43%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ABT. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $145.00 price target (up from $133.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $147.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Abbott Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $143.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $142.00 to $141.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Finally, William Blair raised Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $144.47.

Insider Activity

In other Abbott Laboratories news, Director Sally E. Blount sold 2,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.66, for a total value of $337,116.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 34,058 shares in the company, valued at $4,415,960.28. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Company 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.