Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Sets New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $130.00 to $135.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Abbott Laboratories traded as high as $121.67 and last traded at $121.78, with a volume of 5475248 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $117.78.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $129.00 price objective (up from $122.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $132.50.

Institutional Trading of Abbott Laboratories

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ABT. Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 848.8% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 216,337 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $22,480,000 after acquiring an additional 193,537 shares during the last quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Abbott Laboratories by 4.9% during the second quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,131 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $429,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC increased its position in Abbott Laboratories by 6.6% during the second quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 136,061 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $14,138,000 after buying an additional 8,451 shares during the last quarter. AXA S.A. increased its position in Abbott Laboratories by 77.8% during the second quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 1,383,425 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $143,752,000 after buying an additional 605,269 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Abbott Laboratories by 4.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 871,196 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $90,421,000 after buying an additional 38,676 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Up 3.5 %

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $114.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $113.08. The stock has a market cap of $211.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 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 (NYSE:ABT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.34. The company had revenue of $10.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11,029,400 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 EPS 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a boost from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.73%.

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.