Merit Financial Group LLC Acquires 7,316 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Free Report) by 17.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,340 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock after acquiring an additional 7,316 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $5,694,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ABT. State Street Corp raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 3.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,323,807 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,903,198 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $3,963,974,000 after buying an additional 488,764 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,810,977 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $2,942,709,000 after buying an additional 280,441 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,319,347 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock valued at $1,518,539,000 after buying an additional 2,711,586 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Abbott Laboratories by 5.6% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,102,204 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock valued at $1,265,762,000 after acquiring an additional 585,915 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $143.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Raymond James reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $129.00 target price (up previously from $122.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $107.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $131.57.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ABT traded down $0.46 during trading on Friday, hitting $113.45. 6,443,213 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,199,178. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $114.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $112.80. Abbott Laboratories has a 1-year low of $99.71 and a 1-year high of $121.64. The firm has a market cap of $196.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.48, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

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

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. 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 yield of 2.08%. Abbott Laboratories's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.87%.

Abbott Laboratories 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.