Searle & CO. Sells 4,000 Shares of AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Searle & CO. cut its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,202 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,000 shares during the quarter. AbbVie makes up approximately 2.8% of Searle & CO.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Searle & CO.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $11,824,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 37.0% in the first quarter. Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 14,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,238,000 after purchasing an additional 4,017 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK raised its stake in AbbVie by 11.2% in the second quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 447,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,516,000 after purchasing an additional 45,132 shares in the last quarter. Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab bought a new stake in AbbVie during the second quarter valued at approximately $23,557,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in AbbVie by 7.5% during the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 134,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,865,000 after purchasing an additional 9,380 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in AbbVie by 1.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,596,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,784,646,000 after purchasing an additional 1,379,232 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on ABBV shares. Argus raised their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $250.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. HSBC upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $258.00 to $294.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on AbbVie from $280.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 2nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on AbbVie from $275.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $297.46.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 32,710 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $8,177,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 74,430 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,607,500. This represents a 30.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

AbbVie Stock Up 0.2%

NYSE:ABBV opened at $293.88 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $519.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.20. The company has a fifty day moving average of $273.45 and a 200 day moving average of $239.80. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $190.75 and a 52 week high of $302.93.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 30th. The company reported $3.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.09. AbbVie had a negative return on equity of 450.55% and a net margin of 15.67%. The company had revenue of $17.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.32 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.86 EPS. AbbVie’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 13.98 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 15th will be paid a $1.82 dividend. This represents a $7.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 15th. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.73. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 125.30%.

AbbVie Company Profile

AbbVie is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and markets medicines for a range of serious health conditions. Its research and product portfolio spans immunology, oncology, neuroscience and other therapeutic areas. Key products include the immunology medicines Skyrizi and Rinvoq, cancer treatments such as Imbruvica and Venclexta, and neuroscience therapies including Botox and Vraylar. Through its Allergan acquisition, AbbVie also offers aesthetics products such as Botox Cosmetic and Juvéderm.