AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Shares Sold by Highland Capital Management LLC

Highland Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 41,131 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,703 shares during the quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $9,523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter worth $4,288,200,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 18,384.4% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,705,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,059,141,000 after purchasing an additional 5,675,095 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 550.9% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,332,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $804,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,666,521 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in AbbVie by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 177,298,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,910,186,000 after purchasing an additional 3,380,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie during the 2nd quarter worth about $581,817,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ABBV. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $207.00 to $222.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 13th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $220.00 to $251.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $245.84.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $230.07 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $406.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 174.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.36. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.39 and a 52 week high of $244.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $226.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $212.41.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.58 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 4.00% and a return on equity of 3,216.47%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.00 EPS. AbbVie has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 3.320-3.360 EPS. Research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.73 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. This represents a $6.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 496.97%.

About AbbVie

AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company that was created as a spin-off from Abbott Laboratories in 2013 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. The company focuses on discovering, developing and commercializing therapies for complex and often chronic medical conditions. Its operations span research and development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs and commercialization, with an emphasis on bringing specialty medicines to market across multiple therapeutic areas.

AbbVie’s product portfolio and pipeline cover several major therapeutic categories, including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, virology and women’s health.