D.A. Davidson & CO. Cuts Position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lowered its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 155,257 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 4,807 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $17,701,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC boosted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC now owns 12,928 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,474,000 after purchasing an additional 889 shares during the period. West Tower Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the third quarter worth about $262,000. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.5% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,291,053 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $370,013,000 after buying an additional 48,561 shares in the last quarter. Capital Square LLC raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Square LLC now owns 2,864 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $327,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Acorn Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $308,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total value of $16,492,852.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,617,068.19. This represents a 39.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Edward Jones lowered shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.07.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:ABT opened at $118.13 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60. Abbott Laboratories has a 1-year low of $99.71 and a 1-year high of $121.64. The company’s fifty day moving average is $115.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $204.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.72.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.01. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.99%. The company had revenue of $10.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.87%.

Abbott Laboratories 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.