Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Price Target Cut to $140.00

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) had its price target lowered by stock analysts at Barclays from $141.00 to $140.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the healthcare product maker’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 30.15% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on ABT. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $128.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $126.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $121.50.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $107.57 on Monday. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $89.67 and a fifty-two week high of $121.64. The stock has a market cap of $186.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.51, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.64. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $107.97.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.02. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.96% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The business had revenue of $9.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In related news, VP John A. Jr. Mccoy sold 472 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total value of $55,932.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,760 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,223,060. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP John A. Jr. Mccoy sold 472 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total value of $55,932.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,760 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,223,060. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were 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 owns 78,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,444,480. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 56,435 shares of company stock worth $6,451,298. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bell Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 18.3% during the 1st quarter. Bell Bank now owns 5,395 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $613,000 after acquiring an additional 835 shares during the last quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 2,091 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $238,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Summa Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 1st quarter worth $252,000. Busey Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Busey Bank now owns 94,293 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $10,717,000 after acquiring an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BSW Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 8.3% during the 1st quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 12,346 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,403,000 after acquiring an additional 941 shares during the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.