Kevin K. Buckbee Sells 1,800 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Stock

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total value of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of ABBV stock traded down $2.36 on Wednesday, hitting $173.02. 5,467,299 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,552,371. The firm has a market cap of $305.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.08, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $183.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $183.39. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $151.29 and a 52 week high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 227.78%.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Groupama Asset Managment raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 135,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 38,974 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 4,140.0% during the second 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. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABBV has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.70.

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.