Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 22,326 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,164 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $4,409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 3,110,601 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 992,496 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in AbbVie by 12.8% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $199.57 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $194.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $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. The firm has a market capitalization of $352.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.30, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $135.85 and a fifty-two week high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 226.99%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business 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. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 227.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABBV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price objective for the company. Guggenheim lifted their price target on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America boosted 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. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.72.

About AbbVie

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.