M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. Makes New $293,000 Investment in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 1,399 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $293,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 173,072,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,754,908,000 after buying an additional 1,424,237 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 37,144,933 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,586,948,000 after buying an additional 983,888 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 33,983,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,038,898,000 after buying an additional 778,126 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 27,436,133 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,875,401,000 after buying an additional 3,599,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,459,385,000. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:ABBV opened at $190.67 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $184.21 and a 200-day moving average of $187.55. The firm has a market cap of $336.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 79.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.50. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $163.52 and a twelve month high of $218.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,832 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.08, for a total value of $12,359,426.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 53,234 shares in the company, valued at $11,183,398.72. The trade was a 52.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ABBV. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $241.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $210.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.29.

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.