Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. Boosts Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 248.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,576 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,977 shares during the period. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,015,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,747,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,961,001,000 after buying an additional 1,450,089 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 44,988,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,971,796,000 after purchasing an additional 2,542,463 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 2.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 32,175,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,796,085,000 after purchasing an additional 914,485 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,451,975 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,774,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,702,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth about $3,229,888,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $181.07.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV stock traded up $3.41 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $167.25. The company had a trading volume of 5,978,524 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,658,405. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.93, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.83. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $132.70 and a 1 year high of $182.89. The company has a market capitalization of $295.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $164.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $167.87.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The company reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.05. AbbVie had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 179.47%. The business had revenue of $12.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.46 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be paid a $1.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.71%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 183.98%.

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.