Abbott Laboratories’ (ABT) Buy Rating Reiterated at TD Cowen

TD Cowen restated their buy rating on shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $135.00 price target on the healthcare product maker’s stock.

ABT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $121.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $118.88.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of ABT opened at $104.79 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $181.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.91, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.59. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $81.97 and a 12 month high of $132.02. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $105.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $98.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $12.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.52 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 17.69% and a net margin of 11.65%. The business’s revenue was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.26 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a $0.63 dividend. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 81.55%.

Institutional Trading of Abbott Laboratories

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ABT. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 152,563,476 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $13,843,610,000 after purchasing an additional 6,769,518 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 80,926,234 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $7,343,246,000 after buying an additional 1,350,766 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,887,109 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,241,076,000 after buying an additional 118,014 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter valued at about $1,603,607,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 18.6% in the second quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 16,706,669 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,515,963,000 after buying an additional 2,614,965 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of medical products and services. Founded in 1888 by Wallace C. Abbott, the company is headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, and serves patients, healthcare providers and consumers in markets around the world.

Abbott operates across four principal businesses: medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition and established pharmaceutical products. Its offerings include glucose-monitoring systems such as FreeStyle Libre; cardiovascular devices, including stents and structural heart products; laboratory and point-of-care diagnostic systems; and branded generic medicines in areas such as gastroenterology, women’s health and cardiometabolic care.

The company’s nutrition portfolio includes infant and pediatric products such as Similac and PediaSure, adult nutritional products such as Ensure, and rehydration products such as Pedialyte.