Investors Buy Large Volume of Abbott Laboratories Call Options (NYSE:ABT)

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders bought 92,955 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 948% compared to the typical volume of 8,870 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $147.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $145.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. William Blair upgraded Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $162.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $147.42.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Carr Financial Group Corp lifted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.0% in the third quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 3,880 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $520,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 795 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Gemmer Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.9% during the third quarter. Gemmer Asset Management LLC now owns 2,750 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $368,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. FF Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 4.3% in the second quarter. FF Advisors LLC now owns 1,904 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Trust Co increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 0.6% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Trust Co now owns 14,018 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,907,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of ABT stock traded down $0.95 on Friday, hitting $122.58. The company had a trading volume of 2,853,926 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,653,640. Abbott Laboratories has a twelve month low of $113.39 and a twelve month high of $141.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.70. The firm has a market cap of $213.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $126.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $129.10.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.88% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The business had revenue of $11.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.21 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 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 2.1%. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently 29.57%.

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.