Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC Makes New Investment in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Leigh Baldwin & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 308,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,907,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Crestline Management LP lifted its stake in AbbVie by 438.4% during the 4th quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 35,311 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,275,000 after acquiring an additional 28,753 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in AbbVie by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,367,162 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,664,489,000 after acquiring an additional 108,993 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in AbbVie by 35.8% during the 4th quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 1,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the period. AXA S.A. lifted its stake in AbbVie by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 971,893 shares of the company’s stock valued at $172,705,000 after acquiring an additional 125,568 shares during the period. Finally, Sky Investment Group LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Sky Investment Group LLC now owns 42,715 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,590,000 after acquiring an additional 3,936 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,832 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.08, for a total transaction of $12,359,426.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 53,234 shares in the company, valued at $11,183,398.72. This represents a 52.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 18,944 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.41, for a total value of $3,853,399.04. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,338,401.36. This represents a 62.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 113,471 shares of company stock worth $23,426,451 over the last ninety days. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $241.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 target price (up from $218.00) on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $194.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.41.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $184.30 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $326.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $194.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $187.21. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $153.58 and a one year high of $218.66.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $13.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.91 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.31 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.56%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 279.15%.

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.