First Merchants Corp Lowers Stake in AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

First Merchants Corp lowered its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) by 2.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,129 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,189 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp's holdings in AbbVie were worth $10,604,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bar Harbor Wealth Management lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 10.7% during the second quarter. Bar Harbor Wealth Management now owns 86,302 shares of the company's stock worth $16,019,000 after buying an additional 8,338 shares during the period. Dohj LLC lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 41.8% during the second quarter. Dohj LLC now owns 4,529 shares of the company's stock worth $802,000 after buying an additional 1,335 shares during the period. Morton Capital Management LLC CA lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 2.9% during the second quarter. Morton Capital Management LLC CA now owns 9,722 shares of the company's stock worth $1,805,000 after buying an additional 275 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 11,193 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,078,000 after purchasing an additional 1,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Hall Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 16,134 shares of the company's stock worth $2,995,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABBV has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Daiwa Capital Markets raised AbbVie from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $214.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $231.00 price objective for the company. Daiwa America raised AbbVie from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on AbbVie from $207.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $229.14.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $231.26 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $408.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The business has a fifty day moving average of $213.28 and a 200 day moving average of $196.43. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.81 and a 1 year high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $3.24 by ($0.27). The firm had revenue of $15.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.93 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 699.66% and a net margin of 6.45%.The business's revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.65 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. AbbVie's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 312.38%.

Insider Activity

In other AbbVie news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total transaction of $2,639,190.45. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 58,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,562,611.97. This trade represents a 18.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total value of $8,407,055.40. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 177,292 shares in the company, valued at $35,178,278.64. This represents a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About AbbVie

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.

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