Level Four Advisory Services LLC Buys 82,694 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Level Four Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 59.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 221,830 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 82,694 shares during the quarter. AbbVie comprises about 2.3% of Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $35,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. 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 acquiring an additional 29,170,366 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at $3,033,348,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 138.7% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 21,536,656 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,432,297,000 after acquiring an additional 12,515,744 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 acquiring an additional 4,785,277 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 426.5% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $754,155,000 after acquiring an additional 3,768,579 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ABBV shares. William Blair started coverage on AbbVie in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. HSBC started coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Friday, July 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $167.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com started coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. Piper Jaffray Companies raised their price objective on AbbVie from $163.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group cut their price objective on AbbVie from $170.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $165.79.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 18,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.15, for a total value of $2,759,275.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 625,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $93,262,600.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

AbbVie Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $151.19 on Thursday. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.96 and a 1 year high of $168.11. The firm has a market cap of $266.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.11, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.33, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $145.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $147.52.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.79 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $13.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.52 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 151.29% and a net margin of 15.50%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 13th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 12th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 121.81%.

AbbVie Profile

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, a therapy administered as an injection for autoimmune, intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq, a JAK inhibitor to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, and ulcerative colitis; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat hematological malignancies.