Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT): Is It A Gold Mine Or A Disaster In The Making?

In the last trading session, 3.96 million shares of the Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) were traded, and its beta was 0.73. Most recently the company’s share price was $112.09, and it changed around -$1.57 or -1.38% from the last close, which brings the market valuation of the company to $194.50B. ABT currently trades at a discount to its 52-week high of $121.64, offering almost -8.52% off that amount. The share price’s 52-week low was $89.67, which indicates that the current value has risen by an impressive 20.0% since then. We note from Abbott Laboratories’s average daily trading volume that its 10-day average is 9.43 million shares, with the 3-month average coming to 5.71 million.

Abbott Laboratories stock received a consensus recommendation rating of Hold, based on a mean score of 1.88. If we narrow it down even further, the data shows that 0 out of 20 analysts rate the stock as a Sell; another 7 rate it as Overweight. Among the rest, 7 recommended ABT as a Hold, whereas 6 deemed it a Buy, and 0 rated it as Underweight. Abbott Laboratories is expected to report earnings per share of $0.96 for the current quarter.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) trade information

Instantly ABT has showed a red trend with a performance of -1.38% at the end of last trading. The performance over the last five days has remained in the green territory. The company’s shares are currently up 1.84% year-to-date, but still up 1.37% over the last five days. On the other hand, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) is -5.52% down in the 30-day period. We can see from the shorts that 15.72 million shares have been sold at a short interest cover period of 2.92 day(s).

The consensus price target as assigned by Wall Street analysts is $130.42, which translates to bulls needing to increase their stock price by 14.05% from its current value. Analyst projections state that ABT is forecast to be at a low of $117 and a high of $150.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) estimates and forecasts

Abbott Laboratories share prices are performing particularly well not compared to other companies within the same industry. As is evident from the statistics, the company’s shares have risen 14.24 percent over the past six months and at a 4.05% annual growth rate that is well below the industry average of 16.40%. Moreover, analysts have decided to roll up on their fiscal year 2024 revenue estimates. The rating firms predict that it will gain 2.10% in revenue this quarter, and will report an increase of 3.70% in the next quarter. The year-over-year growth rate is expected to be 13.10%, up from the previous year.

Consensus estimates provided by 18 financial analysts predict the company will bring in an average of $9.89 billion in revenue for the current quarter. 18 analysts expect Abbott Laboratories to make $10.49 billion in revenue for the quarter ending Jun 2024. The company’s sales for the same quarters a year ago were $8.91 billion and $9.7 billion respectively. Analysts predict that the company’s current quarter sales will jump, forecast at 11.00%. Forecasts for the next quarter put sales growth at 8.10%.

Looking at the company’s year-over-year earnings, the past five years showed a positive earnings growth rate of 19.65%. Abbott Laboratories earnings are expected to increase by 4.05% in 2024, but the outlook is positive 7.80% per year for the next five years.

ABT Dividends

Abbott Laboratories’s next quarterly earnings report is expected to be released around April 17 and April 22. The annual dividend yield of the stock is 1.86 percent and its annual dividend per share was 2.08. It is important to note, however, that the 1.86% dividend yield ratio should be regarded as a guide only, as many other factors should be taken into consideration before making any investment decision.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)’s Major holders

Upon looking at major shareholders, it appears that insiders hold 0.54% of Abbott Laboratories shares, and 77.05% of them are in the hands of institutional investors. The stock currently has a share float of 77.47%. Abbott Laboratories stock is held by 3,546 institutions, with Vanguard Group Inc being the largest institutional investor. By Jun 29, 2023, it held 8.97% of the shares, which is about 155.74 million shares worth $16.98 billion.

Blackrock Inc., with 7.90% or 137.15 million shares worth $14.95 billion as of Jun 29, 2023, holds the second largest percentage of outstanding shares.

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and Vanguard 500 Index Fund were the top two Mutual Funds as of Jun 29, 2023. The former held 54.21 million shares worth $5.91 billion, making up 3.12% of all outstanding shares. On the other hand, Vanguard 500 Index Fund held roughly 41.4 million shares worth around $4.51 billion, which represents about 2.39% of the total shares outstanding.