Heritage Financial Services LLC Sells 702 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Heritage Financial Services LLC lessened its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 15.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,826 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 702 shares during the period. Heritage Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $433,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC purchased a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 78.4% during the third quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 289 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Abbott Laboratories during the third quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, JDM Financial Group LLC increased its position in Abbott Laboratories by 51.3% in the third quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 363 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ABT. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 target price (up previously from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Argus raised Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of ABT opened at $128.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $99.71 and a 1 year high of $129.85. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $115.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $113.90.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.34. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.95% and a return on equity of 20.74%. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. Abbott Laboratories’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. 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 1.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 30.85%.

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.