LPL Financial LLC Acquires 92,492 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 3.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,657,804 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 92,492 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.15% of AbbVie worth $524,863,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of ABBV. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter worth approximately $999,000. Saturna Capital Corp boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 486.1% in the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,531,000 after purchasing an additional 560,808 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 9.0% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 32,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after buying an additional 2,657 shares during the period. PGGM Investments lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 308.1% in the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 32,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,624,000 after buying an additional 24,756 shares during the period. Finally, Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 57.5% during the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,282,000 after acquiring an additional 6,065 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ABBV. Barclays boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group boosted their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.37.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV stock opened at $167.74 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $296.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.65 and a 52-week high of $207.32. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $190.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $181.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. AbbVie’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 215.28%.

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.