Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Acquires 324 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. boosted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,282 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 324 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 165,301,921 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $18,788,216,000 after buying an additional 8,834,840 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 70,177,564 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,976,382,000 after acquiring an additional 5,882,780 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the first quarter worth $341,777,000. Sessa Capital IM L.P. purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories during the second quarter valued at $264,876,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 493.1% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,401,190 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $249,508,000 after buying an additional 1,996,320 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Edward Jones downgraded Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $125.54.

Insider Transactions at Abbott Laboratories

In related news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total value of $16,492,852.39. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,617,068.19. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of ABT stock opened at $117.82 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $113.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $108.40. Abbott Laboratories has a 1-year low of $91.25 and a 1-year high of $121.64. The company has a market cap of $204.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.18.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $10.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.37 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.18% and a net margin of 13.65%. The company’s revenue was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 68.54%.

Abbott Laboratories Company 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.