Community Trust & Investment Co. Buys 1,543 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Community Trust & Investment Co. increased its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 7.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,861 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,543 shares during the quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,885,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ABBV. Crestmont Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Crestmont Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $219,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Floyd Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the fourth quarter worth about $774,000. Pines Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the fourth quarter worth about $992,000. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC grew its position in AbbVie by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC now owns 1,668 shares of the company’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mayfair Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $306,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ABBV shares. Piper Sandler upped their target price on AbbVie from $212.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of AbbVie from $226.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Leerink Partners raised shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.50.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.7 %

ABBV opened at $175.46 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $310.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.58. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $153.58 and a one year high of $207.32. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $177.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.74%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 227.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total value of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

About AbbVie

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers.