AMG National Trust Bank Grows Position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

AMG National Trust Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 31,451 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $3,553,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Andra AP fonden raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 83,408 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $9,434,000 after purchasing an additional 13,800 shares in the last quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 78,065 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $8,830,000 after acquiring an additional 12,363 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 5,114 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $578,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 242,463 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $27,425,000 after acquiring an additional 1,642 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 18,527 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,096,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Abbott Laboratories

In related news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total transaction of $3,054,573.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares in the company, valued at $16,152,064.50. The trade was a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Eric Shroff sold 562 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 31,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,417,294.90. The trade was a 1.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,282 shares of company stock worth $3,263,348. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ABT. StockNews.com downgraded Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 price objective (up from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.19.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

NYSE:ABT opened at $134.90 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. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $99.71 and a 1 year high of $141.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $124.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $118.53. The company has a market cap of $233.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.63, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.75.

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

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 30.85%.

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.