IFG Advisory LLC Increases Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

IFG Advisory LLC increased its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 53.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 37,307 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,022 shares during the period. IFG Advisory LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $5,782,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in AbbVie by 89,097.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,719,514,000 after buying an additional 29,170,366 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AbbVie during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,033,348,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in AbbVie by 29,922.3% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $899,186,000 after buying an additional 6,012,281 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in AbbVie by 17.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,102,311,000 after buying an additional 4,785,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in AbbVie by 426.5% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $754,155,000 after buying an additional 3,768,579 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total value of $24,572,458.32. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 519,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,020,679.73. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total value of $24,572,458.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 519,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $92,020,679.73. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total value of $9,184,047.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock valued at $67,780,003 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Guggenheim lifted their price target on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. William Blair upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $173.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, December 11th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AbbVie presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.6 %

AbbVie stock opened at $180.35 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.96 and a 12 month high of $182.89. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $157.81. The company has a market capitalization of $319.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. The company had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 227.11%.

AbbVie 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.