AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Purchased by BancFirst Trust & Investment Management

BancFirst Trust & Investment Management raised its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,650 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. AbbVie accounts for approximately 0.3% of BancFirst Trust & Investment Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. BancFirst Trust & Investment Management’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in AbbVie in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in AbbVie by 40.3% during the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 135,749 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 38,974 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 4,140.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on ABBV shares. Piper Sandler raised their target price on AbbVie from $212.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Argus raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.70.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE ABBV traded up $0.60 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $178.30. 985,380 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,562,377. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $153.58 and a 1-year high of $207.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $315.08 billion, a PE ratio of 61.91, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.58. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $180.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $184.08. 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 (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 227.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This trade represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by 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.