Abbott Laboratories $ABT Shares Purchased by Entropy Technologies LP

Entropy Technologies LP boosted its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) by 45.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 172,145 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock after buying an additional 54,121 shares during the quarter. Abbott Laboratories comprises approximately 0.8% of Entropy Technologies LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Entropy Technologies LP’s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $17,674,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 175,556,716 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $21,995,501,000 after acquiring an additional 2,402,408 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,853,782 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock worth $10,004,880,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627,791 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 63,229,445 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,922,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614,706 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 12,439.6% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 39,319,009 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $4,926,279,000 after purchasing an additional 39,005,451 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 39,169,239 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $4,907,523,000 after purchasing an additional 400,400 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Leerink Partners dropped their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $119.00 to $106.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $102.00 in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Evercore dropped their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $134.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BTIG Research raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $131.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $118.61.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of ABT opened at $103.13 on Friday. Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week low of $81.97 and a 52-week high of $137.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $91.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $101.33. The company has a market capitalization of $179.63 billion, a PE ratio of 33.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.61.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.03. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 11.65% and a return on equity of 17.65%. The firm had revenue of $12.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.26 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Abbott Laboratories has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.380-1.46 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.450-5.60 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.51 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be paid a $0.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 15th. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Abbott Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is 81.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Daniel J. Starks purchased 10,000 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $92.65 per share, with a total value of $926,500.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,751,103 shares in the company, valued at $625,489,692.95. This represents a 0.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Abbott Laboratories Profile

Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of medical products and services. Founded in 1888, Abbott operates through multiple business areas that focus on diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and established pharmaceuticals. The company supplies hospitals, clinics, laboratories, retailers and direct-to-consumer channels with products intended to diagnose, treat and manage a wide range of health conditions.

In diagnostics, Abbott provides laboratory and point-of-care testing platforms and assays used to detect infectious diseases, chronic conditions and biomarkers; its Alinity family of instruments and rapid-test solutions are examples of this capability.