Financial Counselors Inc. Acquires 4,500 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Financial Counselors Inc. boosted its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 476,307 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the period. AbbVie makes up about 1.4% of Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $94,061,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Quent Capital LLC grew its position in AbbVie by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 8,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,592,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new stake in AbbVie during the 1st quarter valued at about $221,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 220.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 608,224 shares of the company’s stock valued at $110,758,000 after acquiring an additional 418,540 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 69.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 224,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,866,000 after acquiring an additional 92,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the 1st quarter valued at about $5,900,000. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of AbbVie in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price target on the stock. 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 report on Tuesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given 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 $203.50.

AbbVie Price Performance

NYSE ABBV opened at $183.09 on Thursday. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.65 and a 12 month high of $207.32. The stock has a market cap of $323.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.57, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.63. The company’s 50 day moving average is $188.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.58%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 215.28%.

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.