Alley Investment Management Company LLC Buys 2,951 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Alley Investment Management Company LLC increased its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 117,798 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,951 shares during the period. AbbVie makes up about 2.6% of Alley Investment Management Company LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Alley Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $20,933,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in AbbVie by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,147,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $424,014,000 after purchasing an additional 6,810 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its holdings in AbbVie by 20.3% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 2,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 339 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in AbbVie by 11.2% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 251,650 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,280,000 after purchasing an additional 25,248 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 7.9% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 3,565,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $704,166,000 after acquiring an additional 262,316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Donaldson Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.8% during the third quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 468,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,541,000 after acquiring an additional 3,643 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ABBV shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $212.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Daiwa America downgraded AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $191.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Leerink Partners upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AbbVie has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.35.

AbbVie Stock Up 1.1 %

ABBV stock opened at $211.27 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $185.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $187.04. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $153.58 and a 1-year high of $212.30. The stock has a market cap of $372.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 88.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.79 earnings per share. Analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current 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 dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.11%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 273.33%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Timothy J. Richmond sold 29,917 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.90, for a total value of $6,070,159.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,284 shares in the company, valued at $8,985,223.60. This represents a 40.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,439 shares of company stock valued at $11,377,057 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

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.