Verus Capital Partners LLC Has $12.70 Million Stock Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Verus Capital Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,285 shares of the company’s stock after selling 669 shares during the period. AbbVie comprises about 1.2% of Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest position. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $12,695,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the first quarter valued at about $646,000. Quent Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 8,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,592,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 65.7% during the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,041,447 shares of the company’s stock valued at $189,647,000 after acquiring an additional 412,920 shares during the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 14.4% during the first quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 33,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,140,000 after acquiring an additional 4,235 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in AbbVie by 156.0% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,474,020 shares of the company’s stock worth $632,619,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,997 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AbbVie Price Performance

NYSE:ABBV opened at $174.44 on Tuesday. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $136.30 and a 52-week high of $207.32. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $194.14 and a 200 day moving average of $180.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $308.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.76%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup raised their target price on AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. UBS Group upped their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.41.

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.