Essex LLC Sells 483 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Essex LLC cut its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 14.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,816 shares of the company’s stock after selling 483 shares during the period. Essex LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $436,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 89,097.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 29,170,366 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $3,033,348,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 29,922.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $899,186,000 after purchasing an additional 6,012,281 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 17.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,102,311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,785,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in AbbVie by 426.5% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $754,155,000 after buying an additional 3,768,579 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AbbVie Stock Performance

ABBV traded down $4.23 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $161.74. The stock had a trading volume of 2,924,024 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,620,166. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $159.61. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.96 and a 1 year high of $182.89. The stock has a market cap of $286.38 billion, a PE ratio of 59.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. The business had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.11 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.83%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 227.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 21,082 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.30, for a total value of $3,716,756.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,903 shares in the company, valued at $9,855,698.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003 in the last quarter. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. William Blair raised AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Raymond James increased their price target on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Barclays increased their price target on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Guggenheim raised their target price on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, HSBC lowered AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $167.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.43.

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.