Opes Wealth Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Opes Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,724 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $283,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth about $2,115,836,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 165,301,921 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $18,788,216,000 after buying an additional 8,834,840 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 86,588,614 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $9,530,825,000 after buying an additional 7,527,778 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 70,177,564 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $7,976,382,000 after buying an additional 5,882,780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 12,577.8% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,772,670 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $415,948,000 after buying an additional 3,742,912 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Edward Jones downgraded Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $121.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.80.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ABT opened at $113.93 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $107.87 and a 200 day moving average of $108.79. The company has a market cap of $198.20 billion, a PE ratio of 35.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $89.67 and a 12-month high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.04. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.65%. The business had revenue of $10.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th were issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 15th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.54%.

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.