Focus Financial Network Inc. Boosts Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.9% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 17,782 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,512,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.3% in the third quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 18,102 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,575,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Frisch Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in AbbVie by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,187,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Financial Corp increased its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Citizens Financial Corp now owns 5,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. increased its holdings in AbbVie by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 13,723 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,710,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Professional Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.4% during the third quarter. Professional Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,638 shares of the company’s stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ABBV. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $218.00 to $231.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.00.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.1 %

ABBV opened at $204.13 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $360.56 billion, a PE ratio of 70.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $194.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $179.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.71. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $135.85 and a 12-month high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 226.99%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.9 EPS for the current fiscal 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. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.25% of the stock is 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.