ING Groep NV Cuts Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

ING Groep NV cut its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 22.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 334,778 shares of the company’s stock after selling 96,568 shares during the period. ING Groep NV’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $66,112,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. Saturna Capital Corp raised its stake in AbbVie by 486.1% in the 3rd 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. First Hawaiian Bank lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 9.0% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 32,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,657 shares during the period. PGGM Investments boosted its position in AbbVie by 308.1% in the second quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 32,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,624,000 after buying an additional 24,756 shares during the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in AbbVie by 57.5% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,282,000 after buying an additional 6,065 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in AbbVie by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,377,000 after buying an additional 5,993 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABBV has been the topic of several recent research reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price target on the stock. Argus upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.83.

AbbVie Price Performance

NYSE:ABBV traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $170.52. 1,910,385 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,414,011. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $193.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $180.84. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $136.30 and a 52-week high of $207.32. The company has a market cap of $301.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.