ING Groep NV Sells 96,568 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

ING Groep NV cut its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 22.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 334,778 shares of the company’s stock after selling 96,568 shares during the period. ING Groep NV’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $66,112,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the first quarter worth about $646,000. Quent Capital LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 8,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,592,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 14.2% during the 1st quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 19,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,504,000 after acquiring an additional 2,387 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 25,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,566,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 2.5% in the first quarter. Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,382,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABBV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their target price on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.83.

AbbVie Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE ABBV traded up $0.17 during trading on Thursday, reaching $170.52. 1,910,385 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,414,011. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $136.30 and a 12-month high of $207.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $301.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.63. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $193.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $180.84.

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

AbbVie Increases Dividend

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

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.