Central Bank & Trust Co. Reduces Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Central Bank & Trust Co. trimmed its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 36.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,111 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,235 shares during the period. Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $375,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,698,000 after buying an additional 4,471,806 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in AbbVie by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,614,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in AbbVie by 59.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,096,858 shares of the company’s stock valued at $414,088,000 after purchasing an additional 781,858 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in AbbVie by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 10,175,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,009,542,000 after purchasing an additional 582,953 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 486.1% in the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,531,000 after purchasing an additional 560,808 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the subject of a number of research reports. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded shares of AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Guggenheim increased their target price on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $211.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.50.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $171.49 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $303.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.55, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.58. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $153.58 and a twelve month high of $207.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The company has a 50 day moving average of $175.78 and a 200 day moving average of $184.75.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.83%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.