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AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Stock Position Lessened by Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.

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Key Points

  • Letko Brosseau & Associates trimmed its AbbVie stake by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, selling 5,805 shares and leaving it with 285,104 shares worth about $65.1 million.
  • Other large institutions were mostly adding to AbbVie, including Vanguard, Geode Capital, Norges Bank, and Franklin Resources, and institutional investors now own 70.23% of the company.
  • AbbVie reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, with EPS of $2.65 versus $2.59 expected and revenue of $15 billion versus $14.72 billion expected, while analysts currently rate the stock a Moderate Buy with an average target price of $253.43.
  • Interested in AbbVie? Here are five stocks we like better.

Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. decreased its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 285,104 shares of the company's stock after selling 5,805 shares during the quarter. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.'s holdings in AbbVie were worth $65,143,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 180,779,699 shares of the company's stock worth $41,306,353,000 after purchasing an additional 3,032,438 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,629,980 shares of the company's stock worth $10,179,099,000 after purchasing an additional 4,190,487 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth $5,865,055,000. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 25,408,200 shares of the company's stock worth $5,805,530,000 after purchasing an additional 177,370 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 14,881,504 shares of the company's stock worth $3,400,274,000 after purchasing an additional 330,104 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ABBV shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on AbbVie from $262.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen cut AbbVie from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Sunday. Bank of America raised AbbVie from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $234.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $275.00 target price for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $253.43.

Get Our Latest Analysis on AbbVie

AbbVie Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $225.25 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $210.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $219.12. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $181.73 and a fifty-two week high of $244.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $397.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 110.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.06. AbbVie had a negative return on equity of 576.45% and a net margin of 5.79%.The business had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.46 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Key AbbVie News

Here are the key news stories impacting AbbVie this week:

AbbVie Profile

(Free Report)

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.

Featured Articles

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV)

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

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