Larson Financial Group LLC Raises Position in AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 29,114 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,858 shares during the quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $6,652,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in AbbVie by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 180,779,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,306,353,000 after buying an additional 3,032,438 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in AbbVie by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,004,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,779,426,000 after buying an additional 493,420 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in AbbVie by 457.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,536,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,439,714,000 after buying an additional 8,646,424 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in AbbVie by 15.6% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 10,508,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,418,909,000 after buying an additional 1,414,621 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in AbbVie by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,675,877 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,241,363,000 after buying an additional 408,426 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, March 9th. DZ Bank raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $253.43.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV opened at $209.57 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $209.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $219.92. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $180.25 and a 1-year high of $244.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $370.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 103.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.06. AbbVie had a net margin of 5.79% and a negative return on equity of 576.45%. The business had revenue of $15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.72 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.46 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th were paid a $1.73 dividend. This represents a $6.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 340.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP David Ryan Purdue sold 5,230 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.56, for a total transaction of $1,221,518.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 2,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $619,868.24. The trade was a 66.34% decrease in their position. 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 22,381 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $230.00, for a total transaction of $5,147,630.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 38,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,771,510. The trade was a 36.98% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Company Profile

AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company that was created as a spin-off from Abbott Laboratories in 2013 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. The company focuses on discovering, developing and commercializing therapies for complex and often chronic medical conditions. Its operations span research and development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs and commercialization, with an emphasis on bringing specialty medicines to market across multiple therapeutic areas.

AbbVie’s product portfolio and pipeline cover several major therapeutic categories, including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, virology and women’s health.