Sax Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Sax Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 14.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,594 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 810 shares during the quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,172,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,698,000 after purchasing an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,614,329,000 after buying an additional 1,267,685 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in AbbVie by 59.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,096,858 shares of the company’s stock worth $414,088,000 after buying an additional 781,858 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 10,175,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,009,542,000 after acquiring an additional 582,953 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 486.1% in the third quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,531,000 after acquiring an additional 560,808 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:ABBV opened at $171.49 on Friday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $175.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.47. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $153.58 and a 12-month high of $207.32. The firm has a market cap of $303.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.55, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 215.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Leerink Partners raised AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Daiwa America downgraded AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their target price on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.50.

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.