HB Wealth Management LLC Buys 14,259 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Free Report) by 14.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 113,306 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock after purchasing an additional 14,259 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $12,816,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 506.9% in the 2nd quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 15,987 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock valued at $1,661,000 after buying an additional 13,353 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 10.0% during the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 35,323 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock valued at $3,670,000 after acquiring an additional 3,200 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 2.0% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 108,990 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $11,325,000 after purchasing an additional 2,154 shares during the last quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,979 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock valued at $517,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Finally, Clifford Group LLC increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Clifford Group LLC now owns 5,756 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock valued at $598,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABT has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased 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. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $131.57.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of ABT traded down $0.46 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $113.45. 6,443,213 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,199,178. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $99.71 and a 12 month high of $121.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $196.78 billion, a PE ratio of 34.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.73. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $114.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.80.

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

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from Abbott Laboratories's previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. Abbott Laboratories's dividend 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.