Essex LLC Purchases 1,429 Shares of AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Essex LLC raised its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 56.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,979 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,429 shares during the quarter. Essex LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $739,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Daiwa America upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $214.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $231.00 to $284.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $231.90.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total value of $2,639,190.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 58,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,562,611.97. This represents a 18.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total transaction of $8,407,055.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly 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. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $229.19 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $216.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $197.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $404.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 109.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.51. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.81 and a fifty-two week high of $244.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

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

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 312.38%.

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.