Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Shares Sold by Mengis Capital Management Inc.

Mengis Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,416 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 99 shares during the period. Mengis Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of ABT. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 1.0% in the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 23,937 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,729,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Insight Folios Inc increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.3% during the third quarter. Insight Folios Inc now owns 2,691 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $307,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the third quarter worth about $204,000. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.5% during the third quarter. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE now owns 40,368 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $4,602,000 after buying an additional 971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 6.5% during the third quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 18,345 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $2,091,000 after buying an additional 1,121 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ABT shares. Argus raised Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $158.00 price objective (up previously from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of ABT opened at $134.81 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $121.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $117.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60. The company has a market capitalization of $233.82 billion, a PE ratio of 17.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.74. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $99.71 and a fifty-two week high of $136.59.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.95% and a return on equity of 20.74%. The firm had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total value of $3,054,573.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.