Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Makes New $169,000 Investment in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $169,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Greenleaf Trust boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 95,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,844,000 after purchasing an additional 10,073 shares during the period. Naples Money Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $255,000. Zhang Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 98.5% in the fourth quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 9,276 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,438,000 after purchasing an additional 4,603 shares during the period. Finally, Cutler Investment Counsel LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Cutler Investment Counsel LLC now owns 4,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $632,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.43.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total value of $908,687.60. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,233,546.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total value of $908,687.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,233,546.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 13,753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.51, for a total transaction of $2,441,295.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,173 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,000,989.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock traded up $1.75 during trading on Friday, reaching $166.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,532,492 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,932,933. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $175.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $160.10. The firm has a market cap of $294.65 billion, a PE ratio of 60.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.58. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.96 and a fifty-two week high of $182.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $14.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.60 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.16 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $1.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.73%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 227.11%.

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.