AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) EVP Sells $8,089,875.00 in Stock

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV – Get Rating) EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 53,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.28, for a total value of $8,089,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 60,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,280,095.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $155.30 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $134.09 and a 1-year high of $175.91. The business has a 50-day moving average of $151.38 and a 200-day moving average of $150.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a market capitalization of $274.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.49, a PEG ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.62.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported $3.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.54 by $0.06. AbbVie had a return on equity of 154.52% and a net margin of 20.39%. The company had revenue of $15.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, April 14th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 13th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 89.56%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 10th. Wolfe Research lowered AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. They noted that the move was a valuation call. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on AbbVie from $169.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 6th. Credit Suisse Group initiated coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, November 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. Finally, Piper Jaffray Companies upped their price target on AbbVie from $157.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 10th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $161.12.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 1.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 156,022,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,939,769,000 after purchasing an additional 2,442,663 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 77,486,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,399,439,000 after purchasing an additional 366,695 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,102,311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,785,277 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $4,719,514,000 after purchasing an additional 29,170,366 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,033,348,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.71% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Company Profile

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AbbVie, Inc is a research-based biopharmaceutical company, which engages in the development and sale of pharmaceutical products. It focuses on treating conditions such as chronic autoimmune diseases in rheumatology, gastroenterology, and dermatology, oncology, including blood cancers, virology, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s, metabolic, comprising thyroid disease and complications associated with cystic fibrosis, pain associated with endometriosis, and other serious health conditions.