Citigroup Increases Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Price Target to $160.00

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Get Free Report) had its price target lifted by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $135.00 to $160.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the healthcare product maker's stock. Citigroup's target price indicates a potential upside of 16.21% from the company's current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $158.00 target price (up from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Argus upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $138.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $137.19.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT traded up $0.10 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $137.68. The company had a trading volume of 8,155,906 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,485,037. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $99.71 and a 52 week high of $141.23. The stock has a market cap of $238.79 billion, a PE ratio of 18.00, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.60. The business's 50 day moving average price is $124.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $118.42.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $1.34. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.95% and a return on equity of 20.74%. The company had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, SVP Eric Shroff sold 562 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.17, for a total value of $77,651.54. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,970 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,417,294.90. The trade was a 1.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total transaction of $3,054,573.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 25,282 shares of company stock valued at $3,263,348. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Abbott Laboratories

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 168,645,397 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $19,075,481,000 after purchasing an additional 739,260 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,720,429 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $8,746,896,000 after acquiring an additional 2,323,807 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 67,972,953 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $7,688,160,000 after acquiring an additional 2,229,026 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 54,097,005 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $6,118,903,000 after acquiring an additional 795,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 35,668,834 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $4,023,027,000 after acquiring an additional 765,636 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company's stock.

Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

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.