AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Stock: Welch & Forbes LLC Decreases Stake

Welch & Forbes LLC lowered its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 342,782 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,196 shares during the quarter. AbbVie makes up 1.0% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $89,668,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 92,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,108,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares in the last quarter. Vestor Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the 3rd quarter valued at $210,223,000. AlphaCore Capital LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 11.2% in the third quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 50,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,228,000 after purchasing an additional 5,092 shares during the last quarter. Palacios Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 1.2% in the third quarter. Palacios Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,672,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clear Wave Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Clear Wave Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $373,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ABBV. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Leerink Partners boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $309.00 to $342.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. HSBC upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $258.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $297.46.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.5%

AbbVie stock opened at $292.87 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $272.71 and a 200 day moving average of $239.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $517.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.20. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.75 and a 12-month high of $302.93.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 30th. The company reported $3.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $17.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.32 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 15.67% and a negative return on equity of 450.55%. The company’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.86 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 13.99 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 16th. Investors of record on Friday, January 15th will be issued a $1.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 15th. This represents a $7.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.73. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 119.10%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 32,710 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $8,177,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 74,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,607,500. This trade represents a 30.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

AbbVie Company Profile

AbbVie is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and markets medicines for a range of serious health conditions. Its research and product portfolio spans immunology, oncology, neuroscience and other therapeutic areas.

Key products include the immunology medicines Skyrizi and Rinvoq, cancer treatments such as Imbruvica and Venclexta, and neuroscience therapies including Botox and Vraylar. Through its Allergan acquisition, AbbVie also offers aesthetics products such as Botox Cosmetic and Juvéderm.

AbbVie was established in 2013 as a spin-off from Abbott Laboratories and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois.