AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Acquired by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV raised its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 59.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,092,049 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 409,214 shares during the quarter. AbbVie accounts for about 0.7% of KBC Group NV’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. KBC Group NV owned approximately 0.06% of AbbVie worth $215,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Saturna Capital Corp grew its stake in AbbVie by 486.1% in the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,531,000 after acquiring an additional 560,808 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 9.0% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 32,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,657 shares during the last quarter. PGGM Investments raised its stake in AbbVie by 308.1% in the 2nd quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 32,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,624,000 after purchasing an additional 24,756 shares during the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 57.5% during the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,282,000 after purchasing an additional 6,065 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 8.3% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,377,000 after buying an additional 5,993 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on ABBV shares. Truist Financial lifted their price target on AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on AbbVie from $226.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AbbVie has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.83.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.4 %

ABBV stock opened at $170.46 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $301.23 billion, a PE ratio of 59.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $193.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $180.91. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $136.30 and a fifty-two week high of $207.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.85%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 215.28%.

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.