AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Sold by Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC

Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC cut its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,097 shares of the company’s stock after selling 241 shares during the period. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,614,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,691,732,000 after buying an additional 511,470 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 6.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 10,175,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,009,542,000 after acquiring an additional 582,953 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 4.2% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,330,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,842,642,000 after acquiring an additional 373,802 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,698,000 after acquiring an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ABBV shares. Daiwa America lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Leerink Partners raised shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $191.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.50.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV opened at $170.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $153.58 and a 1 year high of $207.32. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $175.84 and a 200-day moving average of $184.66. The company has a market cap of $300.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. AbbVie’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.86%. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 227.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. The trade was a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AbbVie Profile

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.