Sutton Place Investors LLC Reduces Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Sutton Place Investors LLC lowered its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 57.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,084 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,483 shares during the period. Sutton Place Investors LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $227,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in AbbVie by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 173,072,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,754,908,000 after buying an additional 1,424,237 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 37,144,933 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,586,948,000 after buying an additional 983,888 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in AbbVie by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 33,983,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,038,898,000 after buying an additional 778,126 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,459,385,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in AbbVie by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 21,824,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,878,236,000 after buying an additional 2,299,645 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $189.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The company has a market cap of $334.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.64, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $187.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $188.46. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $163.63 and a 1-year high of $218.66.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $13.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.91 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 412.03% and a net margin of 7.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.31 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect 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 Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 279.15%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Erste Group Bank upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. BNP Paribas upgraded AbbVie to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on AbbVie from $214.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on AbbVie to $204.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.29.

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.