Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Has $4.04 Million Stock Holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH reduced its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,736 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 601 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $4,042,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ABT. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,720,429 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $8,746,896,000 after acquiring an additional 2,323,807 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,903,198 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $3,963,974,000 after purchasing 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 3rd 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 during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,319,347 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,518,539,000 after buying an additional 2,711,586 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 worth $1,265,762,000 after acquiring an additional 585,915 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ABT. Raymond James reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $129.00 target price (up from $122.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Monday, October 14th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $130.00 price target for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.93.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 0.8 %

ABT opened at $117.76 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $114.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $113.04. 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 has a twelve month low of $99.71 and a twelve month high of $121.64. The stock has a market cap of $204.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.79, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.73.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.34. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11,029,400 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.99%. Abbott Laboratories’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is 71.73%.

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.