Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Decreases Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lessened its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 273,650 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,999 shares during the period. AbbVie accounts for approximately 0.5% of Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $54,040,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Groupama Asset Managment grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 40.3% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 135,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 38,974 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its position in AbbVie by 4,140.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ABBV shares. Guggenheim raised their price objective on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays increased their price target on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Five investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.19.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $175.76 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $186.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $182.67. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $150.16 and a 1-year high of $207.32. The firm has a market cap of $310.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.03, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced 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. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 215.28%.

AbbVie Company 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.