AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Shares Sold by Sterling Investment Counsel LLC

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC lowered its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 60.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,245 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,006 shares during the quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $602,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ABBV. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in AbbVie in the first quarter worth about $1,819,154,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 550.9% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,332,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $804,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,666,521 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 31.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 14,646,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,068,820,000 after purchasing an additional 3,519,187 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in AbbVie in the second quarter worth about $581,817,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 147.6% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,752,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $576,800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,641,091 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Down 3.0%

AbbVie stock opened at $236.98 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $209.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $195.87. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.81 and a 52 week high of $244.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $418.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.51.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.24 by ($0.27). AbbVie had a return on equity of 699.66% and a net margin of 6.45%.The firm had revenue of $15.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 312.38%.

Insider Activity

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on ABBV. Daiwa America raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $216.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie to $204.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $215.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $223.52.

AbbVie Company 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.