Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp Acquires 256 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp increased its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,814 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,631,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ABT. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 104,649.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 30,247,436 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $3,320,866,000 after acquiring an additional 30,218,560 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth about $1,893,715,000. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 38,966,499 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $4,278,132,000 after buying an additional 4,886,954 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 83.1% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,925,012 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $582,924,000 after buying an additional 2,235,314 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 99.8% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,140,866 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $371,753,000 after buying an additional 1,568,700 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 78,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,444,480. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 78,704 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,444,480. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 963 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total transaction of $114,115.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,895,094.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 56,435 shares of company stock valued at $6,451,298. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $126.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.31.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

ABT traded down $0.63 during trading on Thursday, hitting $105.27. 7,295,879 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,699,425. The company has a market cap of $182.66 billion, a PE ratio of 32.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.74. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $107.59. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $89.67 and a 1 year high of $121.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $9.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.88 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 14.27% and a return on equity of 20.65%. Abbott Laboratories’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is 67.48%.

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.