Centaurus Financial Inc. Grows Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 16.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,319 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,199 shares during the quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,643,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,698,000 after purchasing an additional 4,471,806 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the first quarter valued at approximately $367,372,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in AbbVie by 314.1% during the second 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 during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in AbbVie by 7.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,841,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,516,358,000 after buying an additional 623,569 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 486.1% during the third quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,531,000 after buying an additional 560,808 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $176.95 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $189.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $181.32. The stock has a market cap of $312.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.44, a PEG ratio of 2.09 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 215.28%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim lifted their price target on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.50.

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.