Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Boosts Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 88,786 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,182 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $17,533,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,698,000 after purchasing an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in AbbVie during the first quarter valued at $367,372,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in AbbVie by 314.1% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,315,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $225,549,000 after acquiring an additional 997,441 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,841,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,516,358,000 after buying an additional 623,569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 486.1% in the third quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,531,000 after acquiring an additional 560,808 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:ABBV opened at $177.99 on Monday. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $137.65 and a one year high of $207.32. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $189.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $181.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $314.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

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

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.69%. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 215.28%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ABBV shares. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.50.

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.