Analysts at Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) from Hold to Buy today.With a rating of Buy on the stock, Abbott Laboratories has a 52-week high of $46.38. The one-year price target of $7.39 is lower than the opening price of $41.95, causing a number of other analysts to issue statements on the company in recent days. Stock prices sometimes get a bounce to the upside when analysts upgrade a stock.
U.S. stocks on Monday closed mostly flat, after trading firmly higher, in a volatile session ahead of the start of a pair of closely watched central-bank policy meetings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.02% closed down 3.63 points at 18,120.17.
The blue-chip index had been up by as much as 131 points earlier and traded within a 162-point range.
The S&P 500 SPX, +0.00% slipped 0.04 points to close at 2,139.12, after trading within an 18-point range
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.18% declined 9.54 points, or 0.2%, to close at 5,235.03.
Earlier, the Nasdaq Composite Index had been up by as many as 37 points and traded with a 58-point range
Yesterday Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) shares last traded at $41.90, which is a jump of $0.22 over the previous closing price. Opening at $41.95, they fluctuated from $41.71 and $42.00 throughout the day.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) now has a market cap of 61.59B.
1,022,455 shares crossed the trading desk yesterday, 79 percent below normal, out of a total float 1,464,453,000. Momentum traders often use increases in trading volume to identify large volume growth or dissemination by institutional investors, so look for trading volume to pick up in the coming days.
However, a single day of high volume buy side trading is not enough to determine a trend. As such, market traders will continue to watch for institutional sponsorship as an indicator that financial institutions are moving forward.
Institutional sponsorship is defined by ownership of a stock by mutual funds, banks, pension funds and other large institutions.
These instituitional investors retain teams of analysts researching thousands of stocks. Thus, watching their interests is a good way to ensure you are buying the right stocks.
Traders are able to make make more useful decisions on trades when they track the activity of professional investors.
Trades for Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) have ranged from $36.00 – 46.380, and the stock now has a 50-day MA of $43.36 and 200-day MA of $41.15. Today’s last price is 0.10% lower than the 52 week high of $46.38.
Earnings growth is an important factor to consider when investing in stocks and investors watch for companies that have raised their earnings at least 25% or more for a 3 year period.
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