Abbott Laboratories $ABT Holdings Trimmed by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 81.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 166,623 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 717,610 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $16,467,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ABT. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 152,563,476 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $13,843,610,000 after purchasing an additional 6,769,518 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 80,926,234 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,343,246,000 after buying an additional 1,350,766 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the second quarter valued at about $1,603,607,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 18.6% during the second quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 16,706,669 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,515,963,000 after buying an additional 2,614,965 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter worth about $1,082,524,000. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ABT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Wolfe Research raised Abbott Laboratories from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $109.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings raised Abbott Laboratories from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $118.88.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of ABT stock opened at $104.79 on Friday. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $81.97 and a 12 month high of $132.02. The stock has a market cap of $181.32 billion, a PE ratio of 33.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $105.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.31.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $12.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.52 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 11.65% and a return on equity of 17.69%. The company’s revenue was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.26 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.63 per share. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 81.55%.

Abbott Laboratories Profile

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of medical products and services. Founded in 1888 by Wallace C. Abbott, the company is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, and serves patients, healthcare providers and consumers in markets around the world.

Abbott operates across four principal businesses: medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition and established pharmaceutical products. Its offerings include glucose-monitoring systems such as FreeStyle Libre; cardiovascular devices, including stents and structural heart products; laboratory and point-of-care diagnostic systems; and branded generic medicines in areas such as gastroenterology, women’s health and cardiometabolic care.

The company’s nutrition portfolio includes infant and pediatric products such as Similac and PediaSure, adult nutritional products such as Ensure, and rehydration products such as Pedialyte.