James Investment Research Inc. Has $7.52 Million Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

James Investment Research Inc. reduced its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 38,093 shares of the company’s stock after selling 892 shares during the quarter. James Investment Research Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $7,523,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in AbbVie by 6.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in AbbVie by 6.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,758,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in AbbVie by 3.3% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,698,847,000 after purchasing an additional 992,496 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in AbbVie by 12.8% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price objective for the company. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.00.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.2 %

ABBV stock opened at $203.55 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $194.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $179.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $135.85 and a 1-year high of $207.32. The stock has a market cap of $359.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.9 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 215.28%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 446,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $83,299,645.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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.