Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Free Report) by 19.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 43,690 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock after selling 10,686 shares during the period. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $5,796,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cim LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Cim LLC now owns 16,967 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $1,919,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Capital Square LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital Square LLC now owns 2,941 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 3,822 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $507,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC now owns 954 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $107,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Edge Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Edge Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,530 shares of the healthcare product maker's stock worth $336,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ABT shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $136.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $145.00 price objective (up previously from $133.00) on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $143.11.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Abbott Laboratories news, Director Sally E. Blount sold 2,600 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.66, for a total transaction of $337,116.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 34,058 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,415,960.28. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of ABT stock traded down $1.66 on Friday, reaching $131.95. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,661,224 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,161,139. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $133.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $129.07. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $99.71 and a 1 year high of $141.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market capitalization of $229.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $10.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.38 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.89% and a return on equity of 19.01%. Analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 15th. Abbott Laboratories's payout ratio is 30.61%.

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.