AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Sold by Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. cut its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 22.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,200 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,250 shares during the quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $829,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 4,140.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the period. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, August 5th. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $170.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.39.

AbbVie Stock Performance

ABBV traded up $2.05 during trading on Monday, hitting $189.90. 575,300 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,265,257. The firm has a market capitalization of $335.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.35, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $135.85 and a 1-year high of $199.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $194.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $178.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 203.66% and a net margin of 9.71%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.85 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 183.98%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value of $12,403,580.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 446,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate 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.