Geneos Wealth Management Inc. Cuts Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 29,716 shares of the company’s stock after selling 843 shares during the quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $5,411,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 44,988,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,971,796,000 after buying an additional 2,542,463 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 7.5% during 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 buying an additional 1,702,415 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,229,888,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 39.6% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,422,613 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,305,252,000 after buying an additional 2,390,239 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ABBV shares. Barclays cut their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Guggenheim increased their price target 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. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $191.00 to $196.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $181.07.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ABBV traded up $1.77 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $169.91. 3,681,206 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,604,534. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.93. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $164.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $168.27. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $132.70 and a 1-year high of $182.89. The firm has a market cap of $300.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The company reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.05. AbbVie had a return on equity of 179.47% and a net margin of 11.02%. The firm had revenue of $12.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be given a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio 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.