Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Receives $121.80 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $121.80.

ABT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Edward Jones downgraded Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $121.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ABT opened at $118.13 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $205.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.80, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.72. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $89.67 and a one year high of $121.64. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $109.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.56. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.04. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.65% and a return on equity of 20.18%. 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 firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 220,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,617,068.19. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ABT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 156,467,081 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $17,222,332,000 after buying an additional 701,740 shares in the last quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the fourth quarter valued at about $16,764,000. Garde Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 1,858 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $205,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. Haverford Trust Co grew its position in Abbott Laboratories by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 93,879 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $10,333,000 after buying an additional 664 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sectoral Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 31.4% during the 4th quarter. Sectoral Asset Management Inc. now owns 68,998 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,595,000 after buying an additional 16,500 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.