Balanced Wealth Group LLC Purchases 217 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Balanced Wealth Group LLC boosted its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,408 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the period. Balanced Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after buying an additional 9,978,415 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in AbbVie by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,758,789,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110,601 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,698,847,000 after acquiring an additional 992,496 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value of $12,403,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.25% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price objective for the company. TD Cowen upped their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.00.

AbbVie Stock Up 1.2 %

NYSE:ABBV opened at $203.87 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $194.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $179.09. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $135.85 and a 52-week high of $207.32. The company has a market cap of $360.10 billion, a PE ratio of 70.79, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 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.