AE Wealth Management LLC Increases Stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 56.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 232,704 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 83,844 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $25,369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Monumental Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. FWL Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Elequin Securities LLC purchased a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. 73.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In related news, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 10,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.03, for a total transaction of $1,092,312.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 65,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,829,785.81. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Abbott Laboratories news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.76, for a total value of $5,688,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,775,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $770,759,948.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 10,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.03, for a total value of $1,092,312.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 65,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,829,785.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $112.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $120.82.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ABT opened at $101.76 on Friday. Abbott Laboratories has a twelve month low of $93.25 and a twelve month high of $115.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $176.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.68. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $106.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.17.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.03. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 12.83% and a return on equity of 20.50%. The business had revenue of $9.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.43 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Profile

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 Established Pharmaceutical Products segment 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.