Federated Hermes Inc. Acquires 437,672 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 23.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,292,653 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 437,672 shares during the quarter. AbbVie makes up about 0.9% of Federated Hermes Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.13% of AbbVie worth $355,292,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie in the third quarter worth about $36,000. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie during the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. PCA Investment Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie during the second quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 39.5% during the third quarter. Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on ABBV shares. Raymond James boosted their target price on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays boosted their price target on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, William Blair raised AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.43.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total value of $24,572,458.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 519,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,020,679.73. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,949 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.79, for a total transaction of $10,539,491.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 60,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,895,641.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total transaction of $24,572,458.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 519,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $92,020,679.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

NYSE:ABBV traded up $1.99 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $166.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,731,703 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,599,062. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.96 and a 1 year high of $182.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $294.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.89, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.58. The business’s fifty day moving average is $175.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $159.94.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The company had revenue of $14.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued 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 payout ratio is 227.11%.

AbbVie Company 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.