Ellis Investment Partners LLC Sells 1,136 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Ellis Investment Partners LLC lessened its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 13.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,296 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,136 shares during the period. Ellis Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,441,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 worth $31,025,605,000 after buying an additional 9,978,415 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,698,000 after purchasing an additional 4,471,806 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in AbbVie by 249.1% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,373,184 shares of the company’s stock valued at $796,357,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120,310 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position 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 worth $8,758,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 156.0% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $170.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.39.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV traded down $1.80 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $187.85. 4,017,525 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,287,914. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $135.85 and a 52 week high of $199.95. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $194.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $178.34. The firm has a market cap of $331.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63.

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

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value 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. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

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.