Scott & Selber Inc. Sells 6,063 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Scott & Selber Inc. reduced its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 24.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 18,289 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,063 shares during the period. AbbVie makes up 1.1% of Scott & Selber Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Scott & Selber Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,612,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 11,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,271,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the period. 5th Street Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AbbVie during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $276,000. Klingman & Associates LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 35.7% in the third quarter. Klingman & Associates LLC now owns 11,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,304,000 after buying an additional 3,069 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in AbbVie by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 150,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,723,000 after purchasing an additional 11,893 shares during the period. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in AbbVie by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 22,326 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,409,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ABBV. UBS Group increased their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Argus upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.72.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $199.57 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $135.85 and a 52 week high of $207.32. The company has a market capitalization of $352.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.30, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $194.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $180.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 226.99%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.29%. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.