Poplar Forest Capital LLC Sells 96 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Poplar Forest Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 13,546 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 96 shares during the period. Poplar Forest Capital LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,532,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 218.2% in the 3rd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,848 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,351,000 after acquiring an additional 8,125 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 12,304 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,403,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 3rd quarter valued at about $79,000. Balanced Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Balanced Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,816 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $435,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 32,370 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,691,000 after acquiring an additional 3,952 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Abbott Laboratories to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Argus upgraded Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com cut Abbott Laboratories from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $158.00 price target (up from $149.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total transaction of $3,054,573.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $137.99 on Friday. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $99.71 and a 12 month high of $138.37. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $239.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.04, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.75. The business has a 50-day moving average of $123.08 and a 200-day moving average of $117.77.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.34. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.03 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 31.95%. Abbott Laboratories’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.19 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.85%.

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.