Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $4.55-4.70 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $4.62. Abbott Laboratories also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 4.550-4.700 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ABT. Barclays raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and set a $128.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $126.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $121.54.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

ABT stock opened at $105.90 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.64. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $89.67 and a 1 year high of $121.64. The firm has a market cap of $183.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.74. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $114.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $107.59.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.03. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.65% and a net margin of 14.27%. The firm had revenue of $9.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. Abbott Laboratories’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 78,704 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,444,480. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 78,704 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,444,480. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 42,500 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.50, for a total value of $4,781,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 65,027 shares in the company, valued at $7,315,537.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 56,435 shares of company stock valued at $6,451,298. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Abbott Laboratories

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Wahed Invest LLC increased its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 888.9% in the fourth quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 270,163 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 242,843 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, FWL Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% 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.