Abbott Laboratories’ (ABT) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at TD Cowen

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at TD Cowen in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $135.00 price objective on the healthcare product maker’s stock. TD Cowen’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 28.83% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the company. UBS Group dropped their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $121.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Abbott Laboratories from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $118.88.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of ABT traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $104.79. 8,242,633 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,280,024. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.38. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $81.97 and a 12-month high of $132.02. The company has a market cap of $181.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.59. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $105.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $98.31.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.03. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 17.69% and a net margin of 11.65%. The firm had revenue of $12.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.26 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Abbott Laboratories

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 152,563,476 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $13,843,610,000 after buying an additional 6,769,518 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 80,926,234 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $7,343,246,000 after buying an additional 1,350,766 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,887,109 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $2,241,076,000 after buying an additional 118,014 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,603,607,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 18.6% in the 2nd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 16,706,669 shares of the healthcare product maker’s stock valued at $1,515,963,000 after buying an additional 2,614,965 shares in the last quarter. 75.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Abbott Laboratories Company Profile

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) is a diversified healthcare company that develops, manufactures and sells medical devices, diagnostic products, nutritional products and branded generic pharmaceuticals. Founded in 1888 by Wallace C. Abbott, the company serves healthcare providers, institutions, retailers and consumers worldwide.

Abbott’s medical device portfolio includes cardiovascular products, such as coronary stents, structural heart systems and heart failure devices, as well as diabetes-care technologies, including the FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring system.