Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC Reduces Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC reduced its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 0.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,338 shares of the company’s stock after selling 117 shares during the quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $4,214,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 4,140.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in AbbVie in the 3rd quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in AbbVie by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $177.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $312.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.65 and a 1 year high of $207.32. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $189.09 and a 200 day moving average of $181.44.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.70%. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 227.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ABBV shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Wolfe Research started coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price objective on the stock. Leerink Partners upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Argus upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.50.

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.