West Oak Capital LLC Sells 220 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

West Oak Capital LLC reduced its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,683 shares of the company’s stock after selling 220 shares during the quarter. West Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,543,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the third quarter worth about $39,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in AbbVie by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in AbbVie during the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ABBV. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group increased their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Daiwa America lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This trade represents a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.7 %

AbbVie stock opened at $175.46 on Wednesday. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $153.58 and a 52 week high of $207.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $177.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The company has a market capitalization of $310.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.95 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.74%. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 227.78%.

AbbVie Company 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.