AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Shares Acquired by Access Financial Services Inc.

Access Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,704 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 290 shares during the quarter. Access Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,430,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of ABBV. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,819,154,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in AbbVie by 550.9% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,332,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $804,116,000 after acquiring an additional 3,666,521 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in AbbVie by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 14,646,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,068,820,000 after acquiring an additional 3,519,187 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie during the 2nd quarter valued at about $581,817,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 147.6% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,752,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,641,091 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ABBV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $170.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $207.00 to $222.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Citigroup boosted their price target on AbbVie to $205.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $223.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total transaction of $8,407,055.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 177,292 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,178,278.64. This represents a 19.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total transaction of $2,639,190.45. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 58,247 shares in the company, valued at $11,562,611.97. This trade represents a 18.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $244.77 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $208.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $195.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $432.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.51. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.81 and a 52 week high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.24 by ($0.27). The business had revenue of $15.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.93 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 6.45% and a return on equity of 699.66%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.65 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 312.38%.

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.