Voya Financial Advisors Inc. Acquires 745 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Voya Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 17.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,089 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 745 shares during the period. Voya Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $897,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ABBV. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its stake in AbbVie by 20.3% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 2,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $397,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,487,363 shares of the company’s stock worth $491,204,000 after purchasing an additional 273,078 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,403,000 after buying an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 2.4% during the third quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 7,563 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,494,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aldebaran Financial Inc. bought a new stake in AbbVie in the third quarter worth $466,000. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 5,778 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total transaction of $1,143,466.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,429,199.90. This trade represents a 20.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,832 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.08, for a total value of $12,359,426.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 53,234 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,183,398.72. This trade represents a 52.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 113,471 shares of company stock valued at $23,426,451. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Erste Group Bank upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target (up from $218.00) on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $214.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.19.

AbbVie Stock Performance

ABBV stock opened at $180.53 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $197.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $187.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.66. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $153.58 and a one year high of $218.66. The firm has a market cap of $319.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.22, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.55.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.79 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.63%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 273.33%.

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.