Meriwether Wealth & Planning LLC Buys New Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Meriwether Wealth & Planning LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,940 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $522,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $999,000. Saturna Capital Corp boosted its position in AbbVie by 486.1% in the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,531,000 after purchasing an additional 560,808 shares in the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in AbbVie by 41.3% in the 4th quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,448,000 after purchasing an additional 15,550 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 39,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,011,000 after purchasing an additional 3,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 56,556 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,169,000 after purchasing an additional 10,768 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on ABBV. Daiwa America lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Leerink Partners upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 target price for the company. Bank of America upped their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on AbbVie from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.45.

AbbVie Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of ABBV opened at $214.55 on Monday. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $153.58 and a 52-week high of $215.66. The company has a market capitalization of $378.75 billion, a PE ratio of 89.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $187.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $187.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.79 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.06%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 273.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Timothy J. Richmond sold 29,917 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.90, for a total value of $6,070,159.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,985,223.60. This represents a 40.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 56,439 shares of company stock valued at $11,377,057 in the last three months. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.