Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. Reduces Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. reduced its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,106 shares of the company’s stock after selling 79 shares during the period. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,614,329,000 after buying an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 3.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,691,732,000 after buying an additional 511,470 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in AbbVie by 6.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 10,175,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,009,542,000 after buying an additional 582,953 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in AbbVie by 4.2% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,330,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,842,642,000 after buying an additional 373,802 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $191.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Leerink Partners raised shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.50.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock traded up $1.83 during trading on Monday, hitting $177.00. 2,651,849 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,723,911. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $153.58 and a 12 month high of $207.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $178.47 and its 200 day moving average is $184.55. The stock has a market cap of $312.78 billion, a PE ratio of 61.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.95 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 227.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total value of $310,032.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.