Belmont Capital LLC Grows Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Belmont Capital LLC grew its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 7.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,741 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 481 shares during the period. Belmont Capital LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,331,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Caprock Group LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 10.0% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 41,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,136,000 after buying an additional 3,747 shares during the last quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC now owns 143,096 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,259,000 after acquiring an additional 449 shares during the period. Windle Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Windle Wealth LLC now owns 39,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,735,000 after acquiring an additional 792 shares during the last quarter. Baron Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 14.5% in the third quarter. Baron Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,619 shares of the company’s stock worth $517,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.1% during the third quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 39,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,726,000 after purchasing an additional 1,173 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $166.26 on Tuesday. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.14 and a twelve month high of $207.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $191.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $181.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $293.80 billion, a PE ratio of 57.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released 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 business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. 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. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.95%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on ABBV shares. Argus raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. William Blair raised AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America upped their price objective on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AbbVie has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.89.

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.