Affinity Investment Advisors LLC Sells 240 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Affinity Investment Advisors LLC cut its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,468 shares of the company’s stock after selling 240 shares during the quarter. AbbVie accounts for about 1.7% of Affinity Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Affinity Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $2,462,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in AbbVie by 6.2% in 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 period. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.9% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,758,789,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110,601 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 3.3% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,698,847,000 after acquiring an additional 992,496 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in AbbVie by 0.9% during 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 period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in AbbVie by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In other AbbVie 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 transaction 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ABBV shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Citigroup increased their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.00.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $203.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $194.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $179.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $359.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $135.85 and a 1 year high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors 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 3.22%. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 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.