Kovack Advisors Inc. Lowers Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Kovack Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 15,569 shares of the company’s stock after selling 282 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,075,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 9,978,415 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in AbbVie by 249.1% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,373,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $796,357,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120,310 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted 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 purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the first quarter valued at approximately $367,372,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. TD Cowen upped their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Argus upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.83.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV traded up $0.31 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $171.40. 1,955,827 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,399,431. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $136.30 and a fifty-two week high of $207.32. The business’s 50 day moving average is $194.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $180.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $302.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.95 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.83%. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 215.28%.

About AbbVie

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.