LRI Investments LLC Grows Stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

LRI Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 9.8% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,684 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the quarter. LRI Investments LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cim LLC increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Cim LLC now owns 16,967 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,919,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Capital Square LLC increased its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital Square LLC now owns 2,941 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $368,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.1% in the first quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 3,822 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $507,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC boosted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC now owns 954 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $107,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edge Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Edge Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,530 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $336,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $136.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Abbott Laboratories to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Leerink Partners began coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Monday, June 16th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $143.00 target price on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $143.11.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 1.2%

ABT opened at $131.95 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $133.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $129.17. Abbott Laboratories has a 1-year low of $99.71 and a 1-year high of $141.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.27.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $10.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.38 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 19.01% and a net margin of 31.89%. Analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 30.61%.

Insider Activity

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

About Abbott Laboratories

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.