Valued Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Valued Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 97.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 894 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 442 shares during the quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $177,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Laurel Wealth Planning LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $223,000. Hills Bank & Trust Co increased its holdings in AbbVie by 2.9% in the third quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co now owns 6,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,194,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. raised its stake in AbbVie by 1.9% in the third quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 17,782 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,512,000 after buying an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 40,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,987,000 after buying an additional 2,522 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR increased its stake in AbbVie by 9.7% in the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 160,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,688,000 after purchasing an additional 14,226 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value of $12,403,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the subject of several research reports. William Blair raised AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group upped their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.00.

AbbVie Price Performance

NYSE ABBV traded down $0.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $203.37. The stock had a trading volume of 354,617 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,309,767. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. The company has a market cap of $359.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $135.85 and a 52-week high of $207.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $194.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $179.09.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 226.99%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.23%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.