Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,815 shares of the company’s stock after selling 345 shares during the period. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $358,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after buying an additional 9,978,415 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in AbbVie by 6.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after buying an additional 3,110,601 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,698,847,000 after purchasing an additional 992,496 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,382,000 after buying an additional 134,239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in AbbVie by 12.8% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler raised their target price on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.89.

AbbVie Stock Performance

ABBV traded down $2.61 during trading on Friday, reaching $167.02. 1,748,752 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,424,541. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.05 and a 1 year high of $207.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $295.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.63. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $193.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $180.84.

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. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.93%. The ex-dividend date 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%.

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.