Aviva PLC Acquires 50,137 Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Aviva PLC increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT – Get Rating) by 12.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 442,750 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,137 shares during the quarter. Aviva PLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $48,610,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JDM Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. WFA of San Diego LLC bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Arcus Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 283.3% in the 4th quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. now owns 391 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. 72.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the subject of several recent research reports. BTIG Research boosted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 17th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $118.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $117.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $132.00 to $133.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.37.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 679 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.70, for a total transaction of $68,375.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 70,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,091,998.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 679 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.70, for a total transaction of $68,375.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 70,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,091,998.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.02, for a total transaction of $5,551,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,825,316 shares in the company, valued at $757,746,582.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 59,937 shares of company stock valued at $6,632,764 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $105.74 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $105.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.44. Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week low of $93.25 and a 52-week high of $118.23. The firm has a market cap of $183.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 19th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $9.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.64 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.98% and a return on equity of 22.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.73 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Profile

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Abbott Laboratories engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of a broad and diversified line of health care products. It operates through the following business segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The Established Pharmaceutical Products segment refers to the international sales of a line of branded generic pharmaceutical products.