AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Stake Raised by Pinnacle Associates Ltd.

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 28.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 168,560 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,288 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $31,288,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter valued at $25,000. TD Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 82.9% in the first quarter. TD Capital Management LLC now owns 128 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Abound Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the first quarter valued at $30,000. Cypress Capital Management LLC WY bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the first quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Bear Mountain Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 480.6% in the second quarter. Bear Mountain Capital Inc. now owns 209 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on ABBV shares. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $227.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $234.80.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of ABBV opened at $228.35 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.81 and a fifty-two week high of $244.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $403.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.51. The business’s 50-day moving average is $222.27 and its 200-day moving average is $200.50.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.24 by ($0.27). AbbVie had a return on equity of 699.66% and a net margin of 6.45%.The company had revenue of $15.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.65 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 312.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total value of $8,407,055.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 177,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,178,278.64. This represents a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 58,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,562,611.97. The trade was a 18.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

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.