Sovereign Financial Group Inc. Reduces Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Sovereign Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,289 shares of the company’s stock after selling 90 shares during the period. Sovereign Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $585,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Groupama Asset Managment increased its stake in AbbVie by 40.3% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 135,749 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 38,974 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the third quarter worth $28,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 4,140.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Finally, Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the third quarter valued at $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president now 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 SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on ABBV. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price objective for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price target for the company. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on AbbVie from $212.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Guggenheim raised 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. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.50.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $175.46 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $177.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $184.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $153.58 and a 1-year high of $207.32. The company has a market cap of $310.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.92, a price-to-earnings-growth 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.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for 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 244.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.74%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s 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.