In today’s session Abbott Laboratories (ABT) recorded an unusually high (289) contracts volume of put trades. Someone, most probably a professional was a very active buyer of the April, 2016 put, expecting serious ABT decrease. With 289 contracts traded and 3064 open interest for the Apr, 16 contract, it seems this is a quite bearish bet. The option with symbol: ABT160415P00041000 closed last at: $0.18 or 10% down. The stock increased 0.27% or $0.12 on April 4, hitting $42.31. About 4.41M shares traded hands. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) has declined 7.27% since August 27, 2015 and is downtrending. It has underperformed by 14.09% the S&P500.
Analysts await Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) to reports earnings on April, 27. They expect $0.39 EPS, down 17.02% or $0.08 from last year’s $0.47 per share. ABT’s profit will be $579.42 million for 27.12 P/E if the $0.39 EPS becomes reality. After $0.62 actual EPS reported by Abbott Laboratories for the previous quarter, Wall Street now forecasts -37.10% negative EPS growth.
Out of 15 analysts covering Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), 15 rate it “Buy”, 0 “Sell”, while 5 “Hold”. This means 75% are positive. Abbott Laboratories was the topic in 34 analyst reports since July 24, 2015 according to StockzIntelligence Inc.
The institutional sentiment increased to 0.94 in Q3 2015. Its up 0.11, from 0.83 in 2015Q2. The ratio is positive, as 86 funds sold all Abbott Laboratories shares owned while 551 reduced positions. 92 funds bought stakes while 508 increased positions. They now own 1.03 billion shares or 3.83% more from 989.62 million shares in 2015Q2.
Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. holds 6.08% of its portfolio in Abbott Laboratories for 215,251 shares. Inspirion Wealth Advisors Llc owns 180,072 shares or 5.72% of their US portfolio. Moreover, Brandywine Trust Co has 5.41% invested in the company for 159,855 shares. The Florida-based Polen Capital Management Llc has invested 5.32% in the stock. Healthcor Management L.P., a New York-based fund reported 2.25 million shares.
Abbott Laboratories is engaged in the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of a range of health care products. The company has a market cap of $62.86 billion. Abbott operates in four business divisions: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Vascular Products. It has 24.43 P/E ratio. The Established Pharmaceutical Products segment includes the international sales of a line of branded generic pharmaceutical products.
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