Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 14,457 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 83,343 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,457 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $16,459,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the first quarter worth $646,000. Quent Capital LLC raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 8,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,592,000 after buying an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 65.7% in the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,041,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,647,000 after buying an additional 412,920 shares in the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 14.4% in the first quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 33,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,140,000 after buying an additional 4,235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 156.0% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,474,020 shares of the company’s stock worth $632,619,000 after buying an additional 2,116,997 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AbbVie Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE ABBV traded up $1.78 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $176.21. The stock had a trading volume of 2,284,375 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,378,220. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $136.30 and a 1 year high of $207.32. The stock has a market cap of $311.39 billion, a PE ratio of 60.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $194.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $180.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.72%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 227.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABBV has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD Cowen raised their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.41.

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.