Kessler Investment Group LLC Takes $377,000 Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Kessler Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $377,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. West Coast Financial LLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 9.7% during the first quarter. West Coast Financial LLC now owns 1,578 shares of the company’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. FCG Investment Co acquired a new position in AbbVie during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,413,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC increased its position in AbbVie by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC now owns 7,311 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,331,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC raised its stake in AbbVie by 65.6% in the first quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC now owns 97,341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,726,000 after buying an additional 38,562 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 9.0% in the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 32,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,657 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ABBV. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America upped their target price on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price target for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.47.

Insider Activity

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

NYSE:ABBV traded up $0.48 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $187.02. The company had a trading volume of 367,589 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,273,181. The firm has a market cap of $330.25 billion, a PE ratio of 55.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $135.85 and a 1-year high of $199.95. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $194.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.91 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.85 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 183.98%.

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.