JFS Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 127 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

JFS Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,721 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 127 shares during the period. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,326,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ABT. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 6.7% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 808,863 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $91,400,000 after buying an additional 50,592 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,448 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $2,445,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares in the last quarter. Embree Financial Group lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 12.9% during the third quarter. Embree Financial Group now owns 28,257 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,222,000 after purchasing an additional 3,220 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AA Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 45.6% during the third quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,605 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $867,000 after buying an additional 2,380 shares during the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total value of $3,054,573.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,152,064.50. The trade was a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Argus raised shares of Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 price target (up previously from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of Abbott Laboratories stock opened at $130.63 on Monday. 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 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $132.65. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $118.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $116.07. The company has a market capitalization of $226.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.75.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.95% and a return on equity of 20.74%. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.85%.

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.