Ballast Inc. Raises Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Ballast Inc. lifted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 77.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,110 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,356 shares during the period. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $482,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter worth about $36,000. VitalStone Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 218.4% during the second quarter. VitalStone Financial LLC now owns 242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. KB Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, PCA Investment Advisory Services Inc. bought a new position in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ABBV shares. HSBC lowered AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $167.00 to $156.00 in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Raymond James increased 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. Guggenheim increased their price objective on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $173.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, December 11th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,949 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.79, for a total transaction of $10,539,491.71. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 60,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,895,641.39. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other AbbVie news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,949 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.79, for a total transaction of $10,539,491.71. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 60,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,895,641.39. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at $42,375,512.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 383,324 shares of company stock valued at $67,780,003 over the last three months. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ABBV opened at $181.97 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.96 and a 1 year high of $182.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $157.96. The firm has a market cap of $322.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. AbbVie’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.60 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 227.11%.

AbbVie Profile

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.