Jennison Associates LLC Purchases 145,542 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,731,278 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 145,542 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $341,893,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 4,140.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 100.0% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $166.58 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65. The company has a market cap of $294.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $190.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.10. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.14 and a 52-week high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.95 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm 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 $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 215.28%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ABBV. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $226.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.37.

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.