Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Stock Position Lowered by First Western Trust Bank

First Western Trust Bank cut its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 1.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 73,353 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 1,452 shares during the period. Abbott Laboratories makes up about 0.4% of First Western Trust Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest position. First Western Trust Bank’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $7,997,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ABT. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 97,996.2% during the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 2,101,555,797 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $229,111,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,099,413,455 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 104,649.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 30,247,436 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $3,320,866,000 after purchasing an additional 30,218,560 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the fourth quarter worth $1,893,715,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 40.5% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,820,152 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,108,249,000 after buying an additional 6,003,997 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in Abbott Laboratories by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 38,966,499 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $4,278,132,000 after buying an additional 4,886,954 shares during the period. 73.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.05, for a total value of $4,702,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,725,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,515,969.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ABT shares. StockNews.com started coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. TheStreet lowered Abbott Laboratories from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $112.00 to $107.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 19th. Raymond James lowered their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $123.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Monday, October 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $117.47.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

NYSE:ABT traded up $0.69 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $100.24. 2,277,752 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,135,073. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $96.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $102.93. Abbott Laboratories has a 12 month low of $89.67 and a 12 month high of $115.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.34 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $10.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.15% and a net margin of 12.92%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 13th were issued a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 12th. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Abbott Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 69.39%.

Abbott Laboratories Company 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.