Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Has $2.15 Million Holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 62.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 18,979 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,307 shares during the quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $2,147,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,720,429 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $8,746,896,000 after buying an additional 2,323,807 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,903,198 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,963,974,000 after buying an additional 488,764 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,810,977 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,942,709,000 after buying an additional 280,441 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 25.6% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,319,347 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,518,539,000 after buying an additional 2,711,586 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,102,204 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,265,762,000 after buying an additional 585,915 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 0.2 %

ABT stock opened at $112.97 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $195.94 billion, a PE ratio of 34.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.73. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $115.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $112.67. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $121.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

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

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 71.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective 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, October 17th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.57.

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.