Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Buys 21,329 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 224,822 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,329 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $44,398,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,698,000 after acquiring an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in AbbVie in the first quarter worth $367,372,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in AbbVie by 12.8% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in AbbVie by 314.1% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,315,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,549,000 after purchasing an additional 997,441 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,841,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,516,358,000 after buying an additional 623,569 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Wolfe Research began coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price target for the company. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.50.

AbbVie Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $176.95 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.65 and a twelve month high of $207.32. The firm has a market cap of $312.70 billion, a PE ratio of 61.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $189.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $181.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.71%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 215.28%.

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.