AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Purchased by Hamlin Capital Management LLC

Hamlin Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 8.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,024,031 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 76,218 shares during the quarter. AbbVie makes up approximately 5.1% of Hamlin Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Hamlin Capital Management LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $202,226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,698,847,000 after purchasing an additional 992,496 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% in the 2nd 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 period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in AbbVie by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,984,490,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,434 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on ABBV shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $170.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler raised 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. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price objective on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.39.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $187.85 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $331.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.74, a P/E/G 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 firm’s 50-day moving average price is $194.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.34.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.30%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 183.98%.

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.