Williamson Legacy Group LLC Cuts Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Williamson Legacy Group LLC cut its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,176 shares of the company’s stock after selling 106 shares during the quarter. Williamson Legacy Group LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $387,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in AbbVie by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,614,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in AbbVie by 3.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,691,732,000 after purchasing an additional 511,470 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in AbbVie by 6.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 10,175,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,009,542,000 after purchasing an additional 582,953 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in AbbVie by 4.2% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,330,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,842,642,000 after purchasing an additional 373,802 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in AbbVie by 1.0% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 4,119,235 shares of the company’s stock valued at $813,467,000 after purchasing an additional 38,854 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ABBV. Leerink Partners upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Daiwa America downgraded AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Piper Sandler Companies restated an “overweight” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Leerink Partnrs upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.35.

AbbVie Stock Up 2.0 %

NYSE:ABBV opened at $209.07 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $369.09 billion, a PE ratio of 87.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $184.42 and a 200-day moving average of $186.98. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $153.58 and a 52 week high of $209.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a net margin of 7.59% and a return on equity of 296.28%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.79 EPS. Analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 273.33%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 18,944 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.41, for a total transaction of $3,853,399.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,496 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,338,401.36. The trade was a 62.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 5,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total value of $1,143,466.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 22,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,429,199.90. This represents a 20.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 56,439 shares of company stock valued at $11,377,057. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.