Yousif Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Yousif Capital Management LLC cut its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 271,606 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,883 shares during the quarter. AbbVie accounts for 0.5% of Yousif Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $42,091,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 29,922.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 6,012,281 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth approximately $499,955,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,747,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,961,001,000 after acquiring an additional 1,450,089 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 201.7% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,910 shares of the company’s stock worth $332,242,000 after acquiring an additional 1,433,236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 34.6% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,397,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $655,463,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130,638 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ABBV. William Blair raised AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Raymond James raised their price objective on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV traded up $1.65 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $169.54. The stock had a trading volume of 4,084,061 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,615,517. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.76. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.96 and a 12 month high of $182.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $300.20 billion, a PE ratio of 62.10, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $175.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $160.57.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. The company had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.60 earnings per share. AbbVie’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.16 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 227.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AbbVie news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,233,546.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other AbbVie news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,233,546.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total value of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock valued at $67,780,003 over the last 90 days. 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.