AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Stake Trimmed by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC lessened its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 81,244 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,361 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $16,044,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 2.2% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 60,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,034,000 after buying an additional 1,303 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its position in AbbVie by 5.9% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 362,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,538,000 after buying an additional 20,137 shares during the period. Oak Harbor Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Harbor Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,070 shares of the company’s stock worth $804,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC now owns 47,162 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,470 shares during the period. Finally, Omnia Family Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC now owns 4,091 shares of the company’s stock valued at $808,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on ABBV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. 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 research note on Tuesday. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.89.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $166.76 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.05 and a 1-year high of $207.32. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $193.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $180.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $294.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.90, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.95 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 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.