AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Position Lowered by Fernwood Investment Management LLC

Fernwood Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,690 shares of the company’s stock after selling 270 shares during the period. Fernwood Investment Management LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $2,506,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 9.0% in the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 32,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,657 shares in the last quarter. PGGM Investments lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 308.1% in the 2nd quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 32,790 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,624,000 after purchasing an additional 24,756 shares during the last quarter. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in AbbVie during the second quarter worth approximately $1,349,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 29.6% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 27,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,333,000 after purchasing an additional 6,161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in AbbVie by 33.1% in the 1st quarter. Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,535 shares of the company’s stock valued at $462,000 after buying an additional 631 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ABBV. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Four equities 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the company’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 sale, the chairman now owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE ABBV traded down $0.32 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $203.55. 4,493,880 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,329,237. The stock has a market capitalization of $359.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $135.85 and a twelve month high of $207.32. The business’s 50-day moving average is $194.12 and its 200-day moving average is $179.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 226.99%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.9 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.