Jennison Associates LLC Purchases 145,542 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 9.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,731,278 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 145,542 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC owned approximately 0.10% of AbbVie worth $341,893,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter worth $27,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 4,140.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in AbbVie by 100.0% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on ABBV. Wolfe Research began coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 target price on the stock. Guggenheim increased their target price on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Barclays increased their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.37.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV stock opened at $166.58 on Wednesday. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.14 and a 1 year high of $207.32. The company has a market cap of $294.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.84, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $190.79 and a 200 day moving average of $181.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. AbbVie’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 215.28%.

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.