Cooper Financial Group Purchases 740 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Cooper Financial Group raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 15.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,420 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after buying an additional 740 shares during the period. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $719,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 383.1% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,358,698 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $945,453,000 after purchasing an additional 6,628,310 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 15,420.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,102,648 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $676,866,000 after buying an additional 5,069,771 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 29.2% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,985,797 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,120,516,000 after buying an additional 3,616,471 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 67,972,953 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,688,160,000 after buying an additional 2,229,026 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 10.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 22,056,860 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,494,851,000 after purchasing an additional 2,060,650 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ABT opened at $134.41 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $233.93 billion, a PE ratio of 16.84, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.70. The company’s fifty day moving average is $131.69 and its 200 day moving average is $131.12. Abbott Laboratories has a 52 week low of $107.11 and a 52 week high of $141.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 32.43% and a return on equity of 18.32%. The firm had revenue of $11.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.14 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 15th. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 29.57%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Raymond James Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $142.00 to $141.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $158.00 to $159.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, William Blair raised shares of Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $144.47.

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.