Court Place Advisors LLC Reduces Stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Court Place Advisors LLC lessened its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 9.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 7,783 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 800 shares during the quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $887,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 165,301,921 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $18,788,216,000 after acquiring an additional 8,834,840 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its position in Abbott Laboratories by 9.1% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 70,177,564 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $7,976,382,000 after purchasing an additional 5,882,780 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 10,675,827 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,103,997,000 after buying an additional 508,524 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 27.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,428,752 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $771,940,000 after purchasing an additional 1,596,835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Abbott Laboratories by 7.7% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,352,134 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $721,984,000 after acquiring an additional 452,308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 price objective for the company. Barclays increased their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,617,068.19. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE ABT traded down $1.51 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $115.03. 581,602 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,698,312. 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 company has a market cap of $200.11 billion, a PE ratio of 36.31, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $114.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $108.62. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $91.64 and a 12 month high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly 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. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.65%. The business had revenue of $10.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.14 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 68.54%.

Abbott Laboratories Company 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.