Lipe & Dalton Reduces Stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Lipe & Dalton trimmed its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 26,575 shares of the company’s stock after selling 490 shares during the quarter. AbbVie makes up 2.2% of Lipe & Dalton’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $4,118,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 89,097.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,719,514,000 after acquiring an additional 29,170,366 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AbbVie in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,033,348,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 29,922.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $899,186,000 after purchasing an additional 6,012,281 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 17.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,102,311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,785,277 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 426.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $754,155,000 after buying an additional 3,768,579 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of ABBV stock traded up $0.87 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $162.54. The company had a trading volume of 4,773,974 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,663,454. The company has a market capitalization of $287.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.87. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.96 and a twelve month high of $182.89. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $159.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. The firm had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.60 EPS. AbbVie’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $1.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 227.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total transaction of $908,687.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,233,546.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total transaction of $908,687.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,233,546.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 13,753 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.51, for a total transaction of $2,441,295.03. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 28,173 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,000,989.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 383,324 shares of company stock valued at $67,780,003 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. HSBC lowered shares of AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $167.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Monday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. William Blair raised shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.43.

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.