Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Releases Q4 Earnings Guidance

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) updated its fourth quarter earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $1.31-1.37 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $1.34. Abbott Laboratories also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 4.640-4.700 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on ABT. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Barclays upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler Companies assumed coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $131.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.67.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ABT opened at $117.90 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $205.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.73, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.72. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $91.64 and a one year high of $121.64. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $113.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.68.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.55 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.65% and a return on equity of 20.18%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 68.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Abbott Laboratories news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total transaction of $16,492,852.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares in the company, valued at $25,617,068.19. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Company 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.