Carlson Capital Management Takes $311,000 Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Carlson Capital Management bought a new position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,575 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,382,000 after acquiring an additional 134,239 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,691,732,000 after buying an additional 511,470 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,330,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,842,642,000 after buying an additional 373,802 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted 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 valued at $1,516,358,000 after purchasing an additional 623,569 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in AbbVie by 8.2% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,051,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $866,450,000 after acquiring an additional 381,871 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABBV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group increased their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note 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 objective on the stock in a research note on Friday. Argus upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of AbbVie from $226.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.50.

AbbVie Stock Performance

NYSE:ABBV traded up $0.91 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $177.97. 1,699,317 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,533,223. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $189.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $181.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $314.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.65 and a 12 month high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.69%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 227.78%.

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.