Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. Grows Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. grew its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 13.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 21,100 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,505 shares during the period. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,750,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $999,000. Saturna Capital Corp raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 486.1% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 41.3% in the 4th quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,171 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,448,000 after acquiring an additional 15,550 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 39,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,011,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439 shares during the period. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 56,556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,169,000 after acquiring an additional 10,768 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ABBV. Daiwa America downgraded shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $212.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Leerink Partners raised shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $212.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AbbVie presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.45.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $210.71 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $186.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $187.47. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $153.58 and a 12-month high of $215.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94. The stock has a market cap of $371.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.80, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a net margin of 7.59% and a return on equity of 296.28%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.79 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 273.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Timothy J. Richmond sold 29,917 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.90, for a total transaction of $6,070,159.30. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,985,223.60. This represents a 40.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,439 shares of company stock worth $11,377,057 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Company 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.