Norden Group LLC Has $4.54 Million Position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Norden Group LLC lowered its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 40,115 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 2,081 shares during the quarter. Norden Group LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $4,537,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 13.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 32,370 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $3,691,000 after buying an additional 3,952 shares during the last quarter. Americana Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 55.7% during the 3rd quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 13,661 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,557,000 after buying an additional 4,887 shares during the last quarter. Roanoke Asset Management Corp NY lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Roanoke Asset Management Corp NY now owns 53,108 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $6,055,000 after buying an additional 2,197 shares during the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 43,614 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $4,972,000 after buying an additional 1,616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weatherly Asset Management L. P. lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. now owns 24,315 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $2,772,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total value of $3,054,573.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. The trade was a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Up 1.6 %

ABT opened at $137.99 on Friday. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $99.71 and a fifty-two week high of $138.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $239.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.04, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.75. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $123.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.83.

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

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 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.