Pointe Capital Management LLC Purchases 104 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Pointe Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,917 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $431,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 14,037.9% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,349,176 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $148,504,000 after acquiring an additional 1,339,633 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 4.3% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,208,711 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $3,022,564,000 after purchasing an additional 1,298,219 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 30.8% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,627,373 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $351,311,000 after purchasing an additional 853,997 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 3,664,856 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $354,941,000 after purchasing an additional 801,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 47.7% in the 3rd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,423,715 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $234,737,000 after buying an additional 783,090 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $128.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. 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. Raymond James reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $124.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays cut their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $141.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $126.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.50.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of ABT traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $105.90. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,610,492 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,320,693. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $89.67 and a one year high of $121.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.76. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $112.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $108.51.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $9.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.88 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 13.96%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John A. Jr. Mccoy sold 472 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total value of $55,932.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,760 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,223,060. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, VP John A. Jr. Mccoy sold 472 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total value of $55,932.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 18,760 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,223,060. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 78,704 shares in the company, valued at $9,444,480. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,935 shares of company stock valued at $1,670,048. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Abbott Laboratories

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.