Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Shares Sold by Petredis Investment Advisors LLC

Petredis Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,830 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 716 shares during the period. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $4,166,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,720,429 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $8,746,896,000 after purchasing an additional 2,323,807 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,903,198 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,963,974,000 after buying an additional 488,764 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 1.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,810,977 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,942,709,000 after buying an additional 280,441 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 25.6% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,319,347 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,518,539,000 after buying an additional 2,711,586 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,102,204 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,265,762,000 after buying an additional 585,915 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.50.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

ABT opened at $125.12 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $217.01 billion, a PE ratio of 16.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $115.07 and a 200-day moving average of $113.15. Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week low of $99.71 and a 52-week high of $125.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.34. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 31.95%. The firm had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11,029,400 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.85%.

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.