J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Has $52.83 Million Stock Holdings in AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG raised its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 110.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 284,751 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 149,378 shares during the period. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $52,829,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ABBV. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new position in AbbVie in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. TD Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 82.9% in the first quarter. TD Capital Management LLC now owns 128 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Abound Financial LLC bought a new position in AbbVie in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Cypress Capital Management LLC WY acquired a new stake in AbbVie during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie during the 1st quarter worth approximately $42,000. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ABBV. Berenberg Bank raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $170.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on AbbVie from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Citigroup lifted their target price on AbbVie to $205.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $214.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AbbVie currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $223.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AbbVie news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total value of $8,407,055.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 177,292 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,178,278.64. This represents a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total value of $2,639,190.45. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 58,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,562,611.97. This trade represents a 18.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $244.77 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $208.97 and a 200-day moving average of $195.71. The company has a market cap of $432.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.81 and a 52 week high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.24 by ($0.27). AbbVie had a return on equity of 699.66% and a net margin of 6.45%.The company had revenue of $15.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.65 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 312.38%.

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.