Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Sells 955 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL decreased its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 6.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,276 shares of the company’s stock after selling 955 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $2,600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after acquiring an additional 9,978,415 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,758,789,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110,601 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,698,847,000 after acquiring an additional 992,496 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,702,415 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth $3,229,888,000. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABBV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up from $195.00) on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $188.71.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 282,845 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $49,497,875.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 513,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,792,325. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ABBV traded up $2.99 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $185.16. The stock had a trading volume of 6,948,832 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,529,298. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.93. The company has a market cap of $326.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.64. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $135.85 and a 1 year high of $186.85. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $167.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $169.55.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 186.82% and a net margin of 9.71%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.35%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 183.98%.

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.