Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Raises Dividend to $0.59 Per Share

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 13th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.59 per share by the healthcare product maker on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. This is a positive change from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55.

Abbott Laboratories has raised its dividend payment by an average of 12.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 53 years. Abbott Laboratories has a dividend payout ratio of 42.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Abbott Laboratories to earn $5.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.8%.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 0.4 %

ABT stock traded down $0.45 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $113.41. 2,199,573 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,608,857. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $116.25 and its 200-day moving average is $111.06. The company has a market cap of $196.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.61, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.73. 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 12 month low of $99.71 and a 12 month high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $10.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.55 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.99%. The company’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.14 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ABT shares. Barclays raised their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.07.

About Abbott Laboratories

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.