Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Grows Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 15.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 31,274 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,299 shares during the period. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $6,176,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after buying an additional 9,978,415 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.9% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,758,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in AbbVie by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,698,847,000 after purchasing an additional 992,496 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,620,382,000 after buying an additional 134,239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 12.8% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,984,490,000 after buying an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $83,299,645.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of ABBV opened at $203.55 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $359.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.68, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.71. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $135.85 and a 1-year high of $207.32. The company has a 50-day moving average of $194.12 and a 200 day moving average of $179.38.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 226.99%. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.9 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 215.28%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on ABBV. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. William Blair raised AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Barclays lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America increased their target price on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.00.

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.