Howard Financial Services LTD. Increases Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Howard Financial Services LTD. increased its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,760 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 113 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $668,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,614,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in AbbVie by 0.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,691,732,000 after purchasing an additional 511,470 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in AbbVie by 6.1% during 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 during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,330,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,842,642,000 after buying an additional 373,802 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

AbbVie Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of ABBV opened at $171.49 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $153.58 and a fifty-two week high of $207.32. The company has a market capitalization of $303.05 billion, a PE ratio of 59.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $175.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $184.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm’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 business posted $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current 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. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.83%. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ABBV. Leerink Partnrs raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of AbbVie in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets cut shares of AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.50.

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.