Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 864,531 Shares of Abbott Laboratories $ABT

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 7.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,900,318 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 864,531 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.74% of Abbott Laboratories worth $1,727,869,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Guerra Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Anfield Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 81.3% in the 2nd quarter. Anfield Capital Management LLC now owns 232 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Bridge Generations Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Argus decreased their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $150.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $147.00 to $135.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Barclays decreased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $169.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $150.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $132.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $136.37.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

ABT stock opened at $112.69 on Tuesday. Abbott Laboratories has a twelve month low of $105.27 and a twelve month high of $139.15. The firm has a market cap of $195.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.29, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.74. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $115.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 14.72% and a return on equity of 17.73%. The firm had revenue of $11.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.34 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. Abbott Laboratories has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.120-1.180 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.550-5.800 EPS. Analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.63 per share. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 67.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Mary K. Moreland sold 613 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.58, for a total value of $70,850.54. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 104,291 shares in the company, valued at $12,053,953.78. The trade was a 0.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Daniel J. Starks bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $108.73 per share, for a total transaction of $1,087,300.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 6,738,817 shares in the company, valued at $732,711,572.41. This represents a 0.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 3,055 shares of company stock valued at $353,097 over the last 90 days. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of medical products and services. Founded in 1888, Abbott operates through multiple business areas that focus on diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and established pharmaceuticals. The company supplies hospitals, clinics, laboratories, retailers and direct-to-consumer channels with products intended to diagnose, treat and manage a wide range of health conditions.

In diagnostics, Abbott provides laboratory and point-of-care testing platforms and assays used to detect infectious diseases, chronic conditions and biomarkers; its Alinity family of instruments and rapid-test solutions are examples of this capability.