bLong Financial LLC Boosts Stake in Abbott Laboratories $ABT

bLong Financial LLC raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 2.1% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,257 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Abbott Laboratories makes up 0.9% of bLong Financial LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. bLong Financial LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $963,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hughes Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Abbott Laboratories during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Abound Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Elequin Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Wormser Freres Gestion acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $142.00 to $141.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $127.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, William Blair raised Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $144.47.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

ABT opened at $130.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $226.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $131.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $131.24. Abbott Laboratories has a 1-year low of $110.33 and a 1-year high of $141.23.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26. The business had revenue of $11.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.01 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 18.32% and a net margin of 32.43%. The company’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is 29.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Abbott Laboratories news, CFO Philip P. Boudreau sold 5,550 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.55, for a total transaction of $746,752.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 51,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,862,453.65. This represents a 9.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.46% 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.