AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Holdings Lifted by Richard C. Young & CO. LTD.

Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. raised its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 18.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 23,123 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,653 shares during the period. Richard C. Young & CO. LTD.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $4,566,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in AbbVie by 6.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110,601 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,698,847,000 after purchasing an additional 992,496 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the 2nd 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 last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 13.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,744,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,956,518,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,201 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ABBV. Bank of America boosted their price target on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group increased their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup dropped their price objective on AbbVie from $226.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Friday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 target price for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.89.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $164.99 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $192.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $181.04. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.05 and a fifty-two week high of $207.32. The firm has a market cap of $291.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.98%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 215.28%.

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.