Abbott Laboratories $ABT Stock Sold by CENTRAL TRUST Co

CENTRAL TRUST Co lowered its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 11.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 98,166 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 12,116 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $9,702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised Abbott Laboratories from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $119.00 to $127.00 in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised Abbott Laboratories from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised Abbott Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $118.00 target price (up from $115.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $118.32.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE ABT opened at $109.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $104.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $101.74. The company has a market capitalization of $189.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.54. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $81.97 and a 12 month high of $132.02.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The healthcare product maker reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.42. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 9.75% and a return on equity of 18.04%. The firm had revenue of $13.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.99 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.30 EPS. Abbott Laboratories’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 94.03%.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, EVP Mary Moreland sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.00, for a total value of $406,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 100,791 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,691,756. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Profile

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets medical devices, diagnostic tests, nutritional products and branded generic medicines. Its products serve patients and healthcare professionals in hospitals, clinics and other care settings. Abbott’s offerings include the FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring system, cardiovascular and other medical devices, laboratory and rapid diagnostic tests, and nutrition brands such as Ensure and Similac. Its established pharmaceuticals business sells branded generic medicines in markets outside the United States.