Index Fund Advisors Inc. Purchases New Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Index Fund Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 1,434 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $283,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during 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 buying an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 249.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,373,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $796,357,000 after buying an additional 3,120,310 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its stake in AbbVie by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after buying an additional 3,110,601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in AbbVie by 156.0% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,474,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $632,619,000 after acquiring an additional 2,116,997 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABBV has been the subject of several recent research reports. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays raised their price objective 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. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, 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 report on Friday, October 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $198.47.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of ABBV stock traded up $1.28 on Thursday, hitting $189.16. 599,522 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,263,581. The stock has a market capitalization of $334.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $194.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $178.08. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $135.85 and a one year high of $199.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 203.66% and a net margin of 9.71%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.85 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a $1.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.28%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 183.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value of $12,403,580.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $83,299,645.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

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.