Piper Sandler Begins Coverage on Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in a research report released on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $131.00 target price on the healthcare product maker’s stock.

ABT has been the subject of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They issued a buy rating and a $121.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. Edward Jones lowered shares of Abbott Laboratories from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $123.33.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 0.4 %

Abbott Laboratories stock opened at $113.70 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $197.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.18. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $89.67 and a fifty-two week high of $121.64. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $110.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $108.53.

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

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is 68.54%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total transaction of $16,492,852.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,617,068.19. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Abbott Laboratories

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ABT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 156,467,081 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $17,222,332,000 after buying an additional 701,740 shares during the period. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. acquired a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $16,764,000. Garde Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 1,858 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $205,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the period. Sectoral Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 31.4% in the fourth quarter. Sectoral Asset Management Inc. now owns 68,998 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,595,000 after buying an additional 16,500 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 894,797 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $98,490,000 after buying an additional 8,224 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.