Abbott Laboratories $ABT Stock: StrongBox Wealth LLC Cuts Holdings

StrongBox Wealth LLC lowered its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 34.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,847 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 7,125 shares during the period. StrongBox Wealth LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,368,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 4.6% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 152,563,476 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $13,843,610,000 after purchasing an additional 6,769,518 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 1.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 80,926,234 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $7,343,246,000 after buying an additional 1,350,766 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Abbott Laboratories during the second quarter worth $1,603,607,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 18.6% during the second quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 16,706,669 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,515,963,000 after buying an additional 2,614,965 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,082,524,000. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of ABT opened at $113.43 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company has a market capitalization of $196.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.33, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $104.06 and a 200 day moving average of $101.83. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $81.97 and a 12 month high of $132.02.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The healthcare product maker reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42. The business had revenue of $13.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.99 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 17.97% and a net margin of 9.75%. Abbott Laboratories’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.30 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.63 per share. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 94.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on ABT. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $118.00 price objective (up from $115.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, September 18th. BTIG Research lowered their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $134.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $118.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $118.32.

Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of medical products and services. Founded in 1888 by Wallace C. Abbott, the company is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, and serves patients, healthcare providers and consumers in markets around the world.

Abbott operates across four principal businesses: medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition and established pharmaceutical products. Its offerings include glucose-monitoring systems such as FreeStyle Libre; cardiovascular devices, including stents and structural heart products; laboratory and point-of-care diagnostic systems; and branded generic medicines in areas such as gastroenterology, women’s health and cardiometabolic care.

The company’s nutrition portfolio includes infant and pediatric products such as Similac and PediaSure, adult nutritional products such as Ensure, and rehydration products such as Pedialyte.