Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Reduces Stock Position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA reduced its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 4.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 35,831 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after selling 1,490 shares during the quarter. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $3,723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ABT. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 7,556 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,120 shares during the period. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 13,322 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $1,466,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,525 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $388,000 after buying an additional 413 shares during the period. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 111,176 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $12,252,000 after acquiring an additional 3,767 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TrinityPoint Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 21,247 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $2,339,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the period. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of ABT opened at $114.87 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $110.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $108.61. Abbott Laboratories has a 1-year low of $89.67 and a 1-year high of $121.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $199.83 billion, a PE ratio of 35.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.72.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $10.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.37 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 13.65% and a return on equity of 20.18%. Abbott Laboratories’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ABT. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Edward Jones lowered Abbott Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $121.80.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, CEO Robert B. Ford sold 141,679 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.41, for a total transaction of $16,492,852.39. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,617,068.19. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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 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.