Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 105 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,759 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $878,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Welch Group LLC increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 68,653 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $7,744,000 after acquiring an additional 3,479 shares during the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its position in Abbott Laboratories by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 1,095,443 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $133,691,000 after purchasing an additional 57,499 shares during the last quarter. Bath Savings Trust Co lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Bath Savings Trust Co now owns 166,132 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $18,791,000 after purchasing an additional 5,881 shares during the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 152,719 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $17,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,774 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pensionfund Sabic bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth about $2,828,000. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on ABT shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 price target (up previously from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $137.94.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Abbott Laboratories stock opened at $126.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The stock has a market cap of $218.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.49, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.70. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $128.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $119.90. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $99.71 and a 1 year high of $141.23.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.34. The company had revenue of $10.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.03 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.95% and a return on equity of 20.74%. Abbott Laboratories’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 30.85%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were 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 approximately $16,152,064.50. The trade was a 15.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Eric Shroff sold 562 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.17, for a total value of $77,651.54. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,417,294.90. This represents a 1.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 116,449 shares of company stock worth $15,463,316. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.