Asio Capital LLC Increases Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Asio Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 2.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,192 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the quarter. Asio Capital LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $923,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Groupama Asset Managment raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 40.3% in 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 purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 100.0% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABBV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Daiwa Capital Markets cut AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on AbbVie from $212.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup reduced their price target on AbbVie from $226.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Daiwa America cut AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.50.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ABBV opened at $170.05 on Monday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $175.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $184.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $300.51 billion, a PE ratio of 59.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.58. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $153.58 and a 1 year high of $207.32.

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 business’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 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. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 dividend yield of 3.86%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 227.78%.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total value of $310,032.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,202,751.92. The trade was a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

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.