Abbott Laboratories Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.55 (NYSE:ABT)

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.55 per share by the healthcare product maker on Friday, November 15th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th.

Abbott Laboratories has increased its dividend by an average of 12.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 53 years. Abbott Laboratories has a dividend payout ratio of 42.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Abbott Laboratories to earn $5.13 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.9%.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

NYSE:ABT opened at $116.12 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.17, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $113.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $108.30. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $89.67 and a fifty-two week high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $10.37 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.65% and a return on equity of 20.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,617,068.19. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies started coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 price objective on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $125.15.

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.