Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Sets New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Friday . The stock traded as high as $132.65 and last traded at $131.30, with a volume of 229287 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $131.79.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $146.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Argus upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.06.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The company has a market capitalization of $226.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $118.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.00.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The healthcare product maker reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34. The business had revenue of $10.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.03 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.95% and a return on equity of 20.74%. Abbott Laboratories’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from Abbott Laboratories’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Abbott Laboratories

In other Abbott Laboratories news, EVP Daniel Gesua Sive Salvadori sold 23,771 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.50, for a total value of $3,054,573.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 125,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,152,064.50. This represents a 15.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Redwood Park Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 78.4% in the fourth quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 239 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the period. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Rialto Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the company’s stock.

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.