AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Holdings Raised by AIA Group Ltd

AIA Group Ltd boosted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 42.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,700 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,499 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,813,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Cambridge Trust Co. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. now owns 27,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,311,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc. now owns 38,181 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,917,000 after purchasing an additional 1,417 shares in the last quarter. CapWealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. CapWealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $438,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 23.6% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,292,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $355,292,000 after purchasing an additional 437,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wright Investors Service Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 46,272 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,171,000 after purchasing an additional 6,438 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. 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 report on Friday, March 22nd. Three investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $164.66 on Friday. 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 firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $175.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $159.97. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.96 and a twelve month high of $182.89. The firm has a market cap of $291.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The firm had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 227.11%.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Scott T. Reents sold 14,140 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total transaction of $2,509,001.60. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock valued at $67,780,003 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

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.