AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Sold by Eagle Asset Management Inc.

Eagle Asset Management Inc. reduced its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 26.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 707,663 shares of the company’s stock after selling 258,692 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $141,179,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in ABBV. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,698,000 after acquiring an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the first quarter worth $367,372,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 13.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,744,190 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,956,518,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,201 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in AbbVie by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,984,490,000 after buying an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in AbbVie by 314.1% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,315,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,549,000 after buying an additional 997,441 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on ABBV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America upped their price target on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.37.

AbbVie Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $172.18 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $189.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $180.95. The stock has a market cap of $304.27 billion, a PE ratio of 59.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $137.65 and a 12-month high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 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. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.81%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 215.28%.

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.