Phocas Financial Corp. Sells 6,184 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Phocas Financial Corp. reduced its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 19.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 26,350 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,184 shares during the period. Phocas Financial Corp.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $4,083,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at about $784,000. Center for Financial Planning Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Center for Financial Planning Inc. now owns 13,938 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,160,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Aire Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Aire Advisors LLC now owns 3,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Inc. OK lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 408,543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,312,000 after acquiring an additional 30,898 shares during the period. Finally, Simplicity Wealth LLC bought a new position in AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at about $213,000. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on ABBV. Barclays raised their price objective on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, William Blair raised AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $162.28 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $287.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $176.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $159.75. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $130.96 and a one year high of $182.89.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. The company had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.60 EPS. AbbVie’s revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.11 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 227.11%.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total transaction of $908,687.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,233,546.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other AbbVie news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 21,082 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.30, for a total transaction of $3,716,756.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,855,698.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total value of $908,687.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,233,546.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003 in the last quarter. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

AbbVie Company 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.