Valley National Advisers Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Valley National Advisers Inc. reduced its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 11.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,994 shares of the company’s stock after selling 677 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $986,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie during the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ABBV shares. William Blair raised AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group increased their price objective on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on AbbVie from $170.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AbbVie has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.39.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the firm’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 in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $187.85 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $331.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63. The business’s 50 day moving average is $194.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $178.40. 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 12-month low of $135.85 and a 12-month high of $199.95.

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

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a $1.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.30%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 183.98%.

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.