Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Legal & General Group Plc cut its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 23.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,584,613 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,594,611 shares during the quarter. AbbVie accounts for 0.5% of Legal & General Group Plc’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.66% of AbbVie worth $2,058,586,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Certior Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at about $449,000. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 873,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $158,000,000 after purchasing an additional 39,454 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC raised its holdings in AbbVie by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 15,687 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151 shares during the last quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE boosted its position in AbbVie by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE now owns 850 shares of the company’s stock worth $151,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trek Financial LLC grew its holdings in AbbVie by 15.5% in the fourth quarter. Trek Financial LLC now owns 7,248 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,288,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ABBV shares. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target (up previously from $218.00) on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $224.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on AbbVie from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.45.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $186.58 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94. The company has a market cap of $330.06 billion, a PE ratio of 77.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.55. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $200.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $189.18. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $153.58 and a 52 week high of $218.66.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.79 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.52%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 273.33%.

Insider Activity

In other AbbVie news, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 5,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total value of $1,143,466.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,429,199.90. This represents a 20.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 18,944 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.41, for a total value of $3,853,399.04. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,496 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,338,401.36. The trade was a 62.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 113,471 shares of company stock worth $23,426,451. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.