AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Purchased by Cerity Partners LLC

Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) by 12.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 979,028 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 105,110 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC owned approximately 0.06% of AbbVie worth $205,126,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in AbbVie by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 173,072,078 shares of the company's stock valued at $30,754,908,000 after acquiring an additional 1,424,237 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AbbVie by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 37,144,933 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,586,948,000 after acquiring an additional 983,888 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in AbbVie by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 33,983,707 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,038,898,000 after acquiring an additional 778,126 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the fourth quarter valued at $4,459,385,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in AbbVie by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 21,824,626 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,878,236,000 after acquiring an additional 2,299,645 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABBV has been the subject of a number of research reports. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $194.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of AbbVie to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of AbbVie from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $210.00 price objective on the stock. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AbbVie currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $211.29.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV traded down $2.68 on Friday, hitting $192.32. 4,990,162 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,302,947. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.76. The business's fifty day moving average is $187.01 and its 200 day moving average is $188.98. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.81 and a fifty-two week high of $218.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $339.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.48.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.06. AbbVie had a net margin of 7.31% and a return on equity of 412.03%. The company had revenue of $13.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.91 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.31 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.41%. AbbVie's dividend payout ratio is presently 279.15%.

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.