Argus Investors Counsel Inc. Sells 1,415 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Argus Investors Counsel Inc. lowered its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 17.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,541 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 1,415 shares during the period. Argus Investors Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $868,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ABT. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth about $2,373,461,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 383.1% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,358,698 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $945,453,000 after acquiring an additional 6,628,310 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $635,056,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 15,420.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,102,648 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $676,866,000 after purchasing an additional 5,069,771 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 67,972,953 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $7,688,160,000 after purchasing an additional 2,229,026 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $145.00 price objective (up previously from $133.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $158.00 to $159.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup upped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $136.00 to $147.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $142.59.

Insider Buying and Selling at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, Director Sally E. Blount sold 2,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.66, for a total value of $337,116.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 34,058 shares in the company, valued at $4,415,960.28. This represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

ABT opened at $136.33 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $131.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $126.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $237.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.73. Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week low of $99.71 and a 52-week high of $141.23.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.02. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.95% and a return on equity of 20.74%. The company had revenue of $10.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.38 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current year.

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.