Ballast Inc. Has $482,000 Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Ballast Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 77.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,110 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,356 shares during the period. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $482,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,747,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,961,001,000 after acquiring an additional 1,450,089 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in AbbVie by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 139,161,796 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,749,269,000 after acquiring an additional 440,286 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 78,182,567 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,533,537,000 after buying an additional 1,156,130 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 32,175,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,796,085,000 after buying an additional 914,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 89,097.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,719,514,000 after buying an additional 29,170,366 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, CFO Scott T. Reents sold 14,140 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $2,509,001.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,802,413.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other AbbVie news, CFO Scott T. Reents sold 14,140 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total value of $2,509,001.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,065 shares in the company, valued at $4,802,413.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total transaction of $24,572,458.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 519,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,020,679.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock valued at $67,780,003 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABBV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. HSBC cut shares of AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $167.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $173.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, December 11th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Stock Performance

NYSE ABBV opened at $181.97 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $130.96 and a 52-week high of $182.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $322.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a fifty day moving average of $174.51 and a 200-day moving average of $157.96.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The company had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 227.11%.

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.