Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Boosts Holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise increased its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Free Report) by 173.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 93,360 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock after buying an additional 59,199 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise's holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $10,644,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Insight Folios Inc increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Insight Folios Inc now owns 2,691 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Boltwood Capital Management increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.4% during the third quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 21,821 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $2,488,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 3,153 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock valued at $359,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners now owns 1,108 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock valued at $126,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 1,478 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $169,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on ABT shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $131.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays raised their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $130.07.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total transaction of $16,492,852.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company's stock, valued at $25,617,068.19. The trade was a 39.17 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE ABT traded down $0.26 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $117.10. The stock had a trading volume of 4,542,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,698,179. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market capitalization of $203.10 billion, a PE ratio of 35.49, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $115.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $109.62. Abbott Laboratories has a twelve month low of $98.95 and a twelve month high of $121.64.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.55 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.99% and a return on equity of 20.18%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. Abbott Laboratories's payout ratio is 66.87%.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The company provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Ménière's disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon.