MFA Wealth Services Makes New Investment in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

MFA Wealth Services purchased a new position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $420,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ABBV. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $999,000. Saturna Capital Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 486.1% in the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,531,000 after acquiring an additional 560,808 shares during the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 41.3% in the 4th quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,448,000 after acquiring an additional 15,550 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 39,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,011,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 56,556 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,169,000 after acquiring an additional 10,768 shares during the last quarter. 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 business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were 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 directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. The trade was a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Daiwa America lowered shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.50.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV stock opened at $170.05 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $175.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $153.58 and a 52-week high of $207.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $300.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.05, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results 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. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 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. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.86%. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.