Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases 25,246 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 956,556 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,246 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned about 0.05% of AbbVie worth $169,980,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,614,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in AbbVie by 3.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,691,732,000 after purchasing an additional 511,470 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $2,009,542,000 after purchasing an additional 582,953 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position 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 worth $1,842,642,000 after buying an additional 373,802 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV stock opened at $170.42 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.73. 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 stock has a market cap of $301.15 billion, a PE ratio of 59.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.58. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $153.58 and a one year high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a $1.64 dividend. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.85%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 227.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ABBV. Leerink Partners upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of AbbVie from $215.00 to $211.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Daiwa America lowered shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of AbbVie in a report on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Argus raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total value of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

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.