Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Boosts Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 19.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 106,091 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 17,305 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $18,852,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in AbbVie by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 173,072,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,754,908,000 after acquiring an additional 1,424,237 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,614,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267,685 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 27,436,133 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,875,401,000 after purchasing an additional 3,599,336 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at $4,459,385,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in AbbVie by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 8,347,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,489,992,000 after buying an additional 717,403 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In other news, EVP Timothy J. Richmond sold 29,917 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.90, for a total transaction of $6,070,159.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,985,223.60. This trade represents a 40.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 18,944 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.41, for a total value of $3,853,399.04. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,338,401.36. This represents a 62.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 54,639 shares of company stock valued at $11,067,025. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $212.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Erste Group Bank upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.45.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV opened at $205.12 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $153.58 and a twelve month high of $218.66. The firm has a market cap of $362.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.47, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $197.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $189.02.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share 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 last year, the company earned $2.79 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 273.33%.

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.