Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.65% and a return on equity of 20.18%. The firm had revenue of $10.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.14 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of ABT stock opened at $117.82 on Thursday. Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week low of $91.25 and a 52-week high of $121.64. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $113.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $108.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $204.96 billion, a PE ratio of 36.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.72.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ABT shares. Raymond James restated a “buy” rating and issued a $129.00 price objective (up from $122.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Monday. Mizuho upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $126.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,617,068.19. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.