ICW Investment Advisors LLC Sells 256 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

ICW Investment Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,029 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 256 shares during the quarter. Abbott Laboratories makes up 1.3% of ICW Investment Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position. ICW Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $2,912,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 156,467,081 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $17,222,332,000 after buying an additional 701,740 shares during the period. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth $16,764,000. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 4th quarter worth $2,932,000. Garde Capital Inc. boosted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 1,858 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $205,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Haverford Trust Co raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 93,879 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $10,333,000 after purchasing an additional 664 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ABT. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Edward Jones lowered Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $121.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.80.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ABT traded up $0.99 during trading on Friday, hitting $114.09. The stock had a trading volume of 199,267 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,834,565. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $89.67 and a 12-month high of $121.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.72. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $107.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.79.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $10.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.37 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.65% and a return on equity of 20.18%. Abbott Laboratories’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th were issued a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 68.54%.

Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

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.