Sapient Capital LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Sapient Capital LLC reduced its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 0.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,676 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 257 shares during the quarter. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $3,269,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth about $84,000. Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $128,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, SageView Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 13,005 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,476,000 after acquiring an additional 1,619 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Edward Jones downgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies assumed coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 price target for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $125.15.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

ABT traded up $0.52 during trading on Monday, reaching $116.64. 169,163 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,700,440. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.68. The company has a market cap of $202.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.17, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $108.30. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $90.87 and a 12-month high of $121.64.

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

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Abbott Laboratories news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total value of $16,492,852.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,617,068.19. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Abbott Laboratories 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.