Candriam S.C.A. Acquires 940,121 Shares of Abbott Laboratories $ABT

Candriam S.C.A. boosted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 445.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,151,288 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after buying an additional 940,121 shares during the quarter. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $114,198,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the third quarter worth about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Balance Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Summit Securities Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 41.3% during the 2nd quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 404 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, EVP Mary Moreland sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.00, for a total value of $406,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 100,791 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,691,756. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on ABT. Argus downgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $121.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $112.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Abbott Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $118.32.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 3.2%

Shares of ABT opened at $110.02 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $104.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.78. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $81.97 and a 12 month high of $132.02. The company has a market capitalization of $190.38 billion, a PE ratio of 41.05, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The healthcare product maker reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.42. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 18.04% and a net margin of 9.75%. The company had revenue of $13.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.30 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.52 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 94.03%.

Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets medical devices, diagnostic tests, nutritional products and branded generic medicines. Its products serve patients and healthcare professionals in hospitals, clinics and other care settings.

Abbott’s offerings include the FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring system, cardiovascular and other medical devices, laboratory and rapid diagnostic tests, and nutrition brands such as Ensure and Similac.