Evercore Wealth Management LLC Cuts Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Evercore Wealth Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 87,506 shares of the company’s stock after selling 679 shares during the quarter. Evercore Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $15,550,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 20.3% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 2,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in AbbVie by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,487,363 shares of the company’s stock worth $491,204,000 after purchasing an additional 273,078 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in AbbVie by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,403,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc increased its stake in AbbVie by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 7,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,494,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aldebaran Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter worth $466,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America upped their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $223.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on AbbVie from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley restated a “hold” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group upped their target price on AbbVie from $181.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.19.

AbbVie Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ABBV opened at $173.72 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $197.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $187.44. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $153.58 and a 1 year high of $218.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $307.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.55.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 in the previous year, the company earned $2.79 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.78%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 273.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,832 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.08, for a total transaction of $12,359,426.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 53,234 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,183,398.72. This represents a 52.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 5,778 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total transaction of $1,143,466.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,429,199.90. This represents a 20.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 113,471 shares of company stock valued at $23,426,451 over the last quarter. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.