Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The healthcare product maker reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.02, RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $9.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.88 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 13.96%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 EPS.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of ABT stock traded up $1.74 during trading on Friday, hitting $107.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,627,888 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,670,205. The company has a market cap of $185.68 billion, a PE ratio of 32.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The business has a fifty day moving average of $114.28 and a 200-day moving average of $107.57. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $89.67 and a 52 week high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ABT shares. TheStreet raised Abbott Laboratories from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Raymond James upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Citigroup upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $126.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.31.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 78,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,444,480. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 78,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,444,480. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 42,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.50, for a total value of $4,781,250.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 65,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,315,537.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,435 shares of company stock valued at $6,451,298 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Abbott Laboratories

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ABT. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter worth $28,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Wahed Invest LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 888.9% in the fourth quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 270,163 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 242,843 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Finally, FWL Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.