Meritage Portfolio Management Buys 888 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Meritage Portfolio Management grew its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 24.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,558 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 888 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $706,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ABBV. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 29,922.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $899,186,000 after purchasing an additional 6,012,281 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $499,955,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,747,355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,961,001,000 after acquiring an additional 1,450,089 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in AbbVie by 201.7% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,910 shares of the company’s stock worth $332,242,000 after purchasing an additional 1,433,236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in AbbVie by 34.6% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,397,309 shares of the company’s stock valued at $655,463,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130,638 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 21,082 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.30, for a total transaction of $3,716,756.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,855,698.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other AbbVie news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 21,082 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.30, for a total value of $3,716,756.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 55,903 shares in the company, valued at $9,855,698.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003. 0.25% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

AbbVie Trading Down 4.8 %

AbbVie stock traded down $7.97 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $159.32. 7,576,357 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,611,708. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $174.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $160.67. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $130.96 and a fifty-two week high of $182.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $282.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.94, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.11. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. The company had revenue of $12.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.93 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. 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.