AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Sold by Granite Group Advisors LLC

Granite Group Advisors LLC lessened its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 32.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,073 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,967 shares during the quarter. AbbVie makes up approximately 1.0% of Granite Group Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Granite Group Advisors LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,594,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,698,000 after purchasing an additional 4,471,806 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 249.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,373,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $796,357,000 after buying an additional 3,120,310 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after buying an additional 3,110,601 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 156.0% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,474,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $632,619,000 after buying an additional 2,116,997 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on ABBV shares. TD Cowen lifted their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial increased their target price on AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Argus raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.72.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV traded up $0.76 during trading on Friday, reaching $201.27. The stock had a trading volume of 301,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,301,797. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $194.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $180.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $355.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $135.85 and a 1-year high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. 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 3.26%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

About AbbVie

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.