Abbott Laboratories $ABT Holdings Raised by GF Fund Management CO. LTD.

GF Fund Management CO. LTD. boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 30.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,943 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after buying an additional 11,241 shares during the period. GF Fund Management CO. LTD.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $6,421,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cidel Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 335,841 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $44,983,000 after purchasing an additional 6,660 shares in the last quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 0.3% during the third quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,597 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $5,304,000 after buying an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. DDD Partners LLC grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 3.0% during the third quarter. DDD Partners LLC now owns 129,596 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $17,358,000 after acquiring an additional 3,723 shares during the period. WJ Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the third quarter worth about $367,000. Finally, Naviter Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 26,699 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,576,000 after acquiring an additional 1,263 shares during the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ABT. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $147.00 to $135.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Daiwa Securities Group reduced their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $136.00 to $113.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. BTIG Research reduced their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $145.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Citigroup dropped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $155.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $169.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Abbott Laboratories has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.05.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of ABT opened at $112.63 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $119.48 and its 200-day moving average is $126.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The company has a market capitalization of $195.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.75. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $105.27 and a fifty-two week high of $141.23.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.50 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 17.94%. The firm had revenue of $11.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.34 earnings per share. The firm’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. Equities research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 15th were given a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 15th. This is a positive change from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 67.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Daniel J. Starks bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $108.73 per share, with a total value of $1,087,300.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,738,817 shares in the company, valued at approximately $732,711,572.41. This trade represents a 0.15% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company 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.