AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Shares Purchased by DAVENPORT & Co LLC

DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 191,289 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,968 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $35,504,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the 1st quarter worth $1,819,154,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 550.9% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,332,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $804,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,666,521 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 31.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 14,646,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,068,820,000 after purchasing an additional 3,519,187 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie during the 2nd quarter worth about $581,817,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in AbbVie by 147.6% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,752,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,800,000 after buying an additional 1,641,091 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Berenberg Bank upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $170.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Daiwa America raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $214.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $228.22.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total transaction of $2,639,190.45. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 58,247 shares in the company, valued at $11,562,611.97. This represents a 18.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total value of $8,407,055.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 177,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,178,278.64. The trade was a 19.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $234.07 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $413.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 111.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The business has a 50-day moving average of $210.77 and a 200 day moving average of $195.79. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.81 and a 12 month high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.24 by ($0.27). AbbVie had a return on equity of 699.66% and a net margin of 6.45%.The business had revenue of $15.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 312.38%.

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.