AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Position Cut by Peoples Financial Services CORP.

Peoples Financial Services CORP. trimmed its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,487 shares of the company’s stock after selling 417 shares during the period. AbbVie accounts for approximately 1.6% of Peoples Financial Services CORP.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Peoples Financial Services CORP.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,569,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 89,097.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,719,514,000 after buying an additional 29,170,366 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $3,033,348,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 138.7% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 21,536,656 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,432,297,000 after buying an additional 12,515,744 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in AbbVie by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,102,311,000 after buying an additional 4,785,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in AbbVie by 426.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $754,155,000 after acquiring an additional 3,768,579 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ABBV shares. TheStreet raised shares of AbbVie from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Monday, August 28th. William Blair began coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating for the company. HSBC started coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Friday, July 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $167.00 target price for the company. Finally, Piper Jaffray Companies raised their price objective on AbbVie from $163.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.79.

AbbVie Price Performance

NYSE ABBV opened at $152.12 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $146.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $147.44. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.96 and a twelve month high of $168.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $268.50 billion, a PE ratio of 31.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.33, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.89.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.79 by $0.12. AbbVie had a net margin of 15.50% and a return on equity of 151.29%. The firm had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.52 billion. Research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.03 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 13th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 12th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 121.81%.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 18,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.15, for a total value of $2,759,275.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 625,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $93,262,600.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AbbVie Profile

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, a therapy administered as an injection for autoimmune, intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq, a JAK inhibitor to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, and ulcerative colitis; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat hematological malignancies.