Gagnon Securities LLC Makes New Investment in Abbott Laboratories $ABT

Gagnon Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 4,769 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock, valued at approximately $471,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 4.6% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 152,563,476 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $13,843,610,000 after acquiring an additional 6,769,518 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,350,766 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter worth $1,603,607,000. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $1,515,963,000 after acquiring an additional 2,614,965 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter worth about $1,082,524,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Argus cut shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 27th. TD Cowen cut their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $121.00 to $123.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Abbott Laboratories from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $118.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $118.32.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, EVP Mary Moreland sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.00, for a total value of $406,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 100,791 shares in the company, valued at $11,691,756. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

NYSE:ABT opened at $109.38 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $81.97 and a 1 year high of $132.02. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $104.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $101.74. The company has a market cap of $189.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.81, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.54.

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

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given 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 94.03%.

Abbott Laboratories 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. Its established pharmaceuticals business sells branded generic medicines in markets outside the United States.