12,500,411 Shares in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Acquired by Nuveen LLC

Key Points

• Nuveen LLC acquired approximately 12,500,411 shares of Abbott Laboratories, worth around $1.66 billion, representing about 0.72% of the company's stock.
• Abbott Laboratories reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' expectations, with a 7.4% increase in quarterly revenue year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, yielding approximately 1.8%, to be paid on August 15th.

Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 12,500,411 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,658,180,000. Nuveen LLC owned about 0.72% of Abbott Laboratories as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ABT. Hughes Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Abound Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the first quarter worth $28,000. Wormser Freres Gestion purchased a new stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. JCIC Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories during the first quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In other news, CFO Philip P. Boudreau sold 5,550 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.55, for a total transaction of $746,752.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 51,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,862,453.65. This represents a 9.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $147.00 to $142.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $127.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, William Blair raised shares of Abbott Laboratories to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $144.47.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Performance

Abbott Laboratories stock traded down $1.63 on Wednesday, hitting $129.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,723,731 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,881,706. The firm has a market cap of $225.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $131.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $131.16. Abbott Laboratories has a one year low of $107.71 and a one year high of $141.23.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $1.26. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 18.32% and a net margin of 32.43%. The business had revenue of $11.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.14 EPS. Abbott Laboratories's revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 15th. Abbott Laboratories's payout ratio is currently 29.57%.

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 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.