First Bancorp Inc ME Boosts Stake in AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

First Bancorp Inc ME raised its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 34.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,017 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 779 shares during the period. First Bancorp Inc ME’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $560,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Conning Inc. raised its stake in AbbVie by 7.1% during the second quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 191,023 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,458,000 after buying an additional 12,690 shares in the last quarter. Dohj LLC raised its stake in AbbVie by 41.8% during the second quarter. Dohj LLC now owns 4,529 shares of the company’s stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 1,335 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.8% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 7,556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,403,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Narus Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 25.3% during the first quarter. Narus Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,988 shares of the company’s stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% during the second quarter. BankPlus Trust Department now owns 27,113 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,033,000 after purchasing an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on AbbVie from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 target price (up from $236.00) on shares of AbbVie in a report on Friday. UBS Group set a $251.00 target price on AbbVie in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Daiwa Capital Markets raised AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $214.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $170.00 to $270.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $234.05.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $229.66 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $163.81 and a 12-month high of $244.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $405.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $217.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $197.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.24 by ($0.27). The business had revenue of $15.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.93 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 699.66% and a net margin of 6.45%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.65 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 312.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AbbVie news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total value of $2,639,190.45. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 58,247 shares in the company, valued at $11,562,611.97. This represents a 18.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total value of $8,407,055.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 177,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,178,278.64. This trade represents a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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.