Seros Financial LLC Acquires Shares of 1,250 AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Seros Financial LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ABBV. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,698,000 after purchasing an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,614,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 59.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,096,858 shares of the company’s stock worth $414,088,000 after acquiring an additional 781,858 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 6.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 10,175,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,009,542,000 after purchasing an additional 582,953 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp grew its stake in AbbVie by 486.1% in the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,531,000 after acquiring an additional 560,808 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ABBV. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded shares of AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $211.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.50.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. This trade represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $170.42 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $153.58 and a fifty-two week high of $207.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $301.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.17, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $175.72 and a 200 day moving average of $184.73.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.95 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.85%. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 227.78%.

AbbVie Company 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.