AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Shares Purchased by First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,364 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the quarter. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $810,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Bank of America boosted their target price on AbbVie from $220.00 to $251.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on AbbVie from $231.00 to $284.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. HSBC set a $225.00 target price on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $231.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was 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 approximately $11,562,611.97. The trade was a 18.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 177,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,178,278.64. The trade was a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AbbVie Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $230.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $407.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The business has a 50-day moving average of $214.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $196.79. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.81 and a 1 year high of $244.81.

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

AbbVie Announces Dividend

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

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.