Essex Savings Bank Buys 885 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Essex Savings Bank grew its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 7.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,589 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 885 shares during the period. Essex Savings Bank’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $2,684,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 4,140.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burkett Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 61.2% during the third quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV opened at $199.50 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $194.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $180.61. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $135.85 and a 12-month high of $207.32. The firm has a market cap of $352.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.27, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 215.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ABBV. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price for the company. Argus raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of AbbVie from $218.00 to $231.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AbbVie presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.82.

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.