The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 1.37% to 147.53 million shares with purchase of 2.0 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 8.43% valued currently at $14.6 billion. In addition, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.35 million to 74.14 million shares. And Capital Research & Management Co has lifted its position by 3.39% or 1.71 million shares – to 52.23 million shares.
With over 4.83 million Abbott Laboratories (ABT) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $105.00 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $507.39 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -10.61% and its price on 11/29/22 lost nearly -0.37%. Currently, there are 1.75B common shares owned by the public and among those 1.73B shares have been available to trade.
Will You Miss Out On This Growth Stock Boom?
A new megatrend in the fintech market is well underway. Mobile payments are projected to boom into a massive $12 trillion market by 2028. According to Motley Fool this growth stock could "deliver huge returns." Not only in the immediate future but also over the next decade. Especially since the man behind this company is a serial entrepreneur who has been wildly successful over the years.
And this is just one of our
5 Best Growth Stocks To Own For 2023.
Sponsored
An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 24 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for ABT have a consensus price objective of $114.07. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $140.00 and a low of $90.00. The average price target is 9.78% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -16.67% over that period. But an upside of 25.0% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $114.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 135 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 55 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 942,162 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 80 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 883,529 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Abbott Laboratories are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and American Funds Investment Company. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 52.56 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $5.2 billion. The company bought an additional 0.25 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.00% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.39 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 40.07 million shares valued at over $3.96 billion and representing 2.29% of the shares outstanding. American Funds Investment Company now owns shares totaling to 1.28% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) opened at $105.00, down -$0.39 from a prior closing price of $105.39. However, the script later moved the day high at 105.38, down -0.37%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 1.08% and 2.74% over the past three months. ABT shares are trading -25.39% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -17.99% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $93.25 and touched a high of $142.60 over the same period. ABT has an average intraday trading volume of 5.90 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 2.94%, 4.06%, and -4.43% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) shares accounts for 76.30% of the company’s 1.75B shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 4.23%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 41.76% and 33.65% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $181.09B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.69. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 23.58, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $4.45. The company has a PEG of 2.84 and a Quick Ratio of 1.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.46. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.64% over the week and 1.82% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Abbott Laboratories (ABT) will achieve an EPS of $0.91 for the current quarter, $1 for the next quarter and $4.38 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.87 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.09. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.32 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 57.00%, and -16.06% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 8.30% over the next five years, compared to 40.70% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 24 brokerage firm advisors rate Abbott Laboratories (ABT) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.10. Specifically, 13 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 5 of the 24 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the ABT, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Mizuho stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on October 26, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $105. Barclays coverage for the Abbott Laboratories (ABT) stock in a research note released on October 18, 2022 offered a Overweight rating with a price target of $118. Jefferies was of a view on October 12, 2022 that the stock is Hold, while Wolfe Research gave the stock Underperform rating on July 06, 2022, issuing a price target of $95. BofA Securities on their part issued Buy rating on March 02, 2022.
