Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. Cuts Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. trimmed its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,554 shares of the company’s stock after selling 207 shares during the period. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $806,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie in the third quarter valued at approximately $999,000. Saturna Capital Corp boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 486.1% in the third quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,531,000 after purchasing an additional 560,808 shares in the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 41.3% in the fourth quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,171 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,448,000 after purchasing an additional 15,550 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 39,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,011,000 after purchasing an additional 3,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 23.5% in the third quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 56,556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,169,000 after purchasing an additional 10,768 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total value of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. This trade represents a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ABBV. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target (up from $218.00) on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Leerink Partnrs raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on AbbVie from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Argus raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on AbbVie from $211.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.35.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE:ABBV opened at $193.00 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $178.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $185.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $341.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.42, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $153.58 and a 1 year high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a return on equity of 257.91% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.79 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 3.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 273.33%.

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.