Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT Trims Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Key Points

• Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT trimmed its stake in AbbVie by 27.7% in Q4, selling 5,677 shares and leaving the firm with 14,786 shares valued at about $3.38 million per its latest 13F filing.
• Significant insider sales occurred recently: EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 22,381 shares for roughly $5.15 million and SVP David Ryan Purdue sold 5,230 shares for about $1.22 million, markedly reducing their holdings.
• Analysts remain generally positive—AbbVie has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $252.90 after a quarterly EPS and revenue beat, and the company declared a $1.73 quarterly dividend (3.3% yield).

Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT lessened its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) by 27.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,786 shares of the company's stock after selling 5,677 shares during the period. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT's holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,378,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Railway Pension Investments Ltd lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 33.0% during the third quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 853,949 shares of the company's stock valued at $197,723,000 after buying an additional 211,800 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 177,747,261 shares of the company's stock valued at $41,155,601,000 after buying an additional 448,554 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 17.0% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,044,690 shares of the company's stock valued at $241,888,000 after buying an additional 151,644 shares during the period. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 25.5% during the third quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 401,760 shares of the company's stock valued at $93,024,000 after buying an additional 81,625 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 10.5% during the third quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 55,647 shares of the company's stock valued at $12,885,000 after buying an additional 5,302 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 22,381 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $230.00, for a total transaction of $5,147,630.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 38,137 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,771,510. This represents a 36.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David Ryan Purdue sold 5,230 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.56, for a total transaction of $1,221,518.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 2,654 shares of the company's stock, valued at $619,868.24. This trade represents a 66.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABBV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $270.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $275.00 price objective on the stock. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AbbVie from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $234.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $252.90.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $208.00 on Tuesday. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $176.57 and a one year high of $244.81. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $214.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $221.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $367.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 102.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.06. AbbVie had a net margin of 5.79% and a negative return on equity of 911.57%. The firm had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.46 earnings per share. AbbVie's revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $1.73 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $6.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. AbbVie's dividend payout ratio is 340.89%.

About AbbVie

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ABBV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report).

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.