AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Acquired by Quest Partners LLC

Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 3,669.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,992 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,780 shares during the quarter. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,578,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie during the second quarter worth $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie in the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in AbbVie by 100.0% during 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 period. Finally, Burkett Financial Services LLC lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 61.2% during the third quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 216 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $166.26 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $293.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.14 and a twelve month high of $207.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $191.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $181.08. 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 quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors 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 3.95%. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 215.28%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on AbbVie from $226.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Wolfe Research began coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Friday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price objective for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.89.

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.