Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group trimmed its AbbVie stake by 1.3% in the first quarter, selling 36,970 shares and ending with 2,831,636 shares valued at about $615.9 million.
• AbbVie continues to draw support from analysts, with recent upgrades and higher price targets from firms including Morgan Stanley, DZ Bank, Canaccord Genuity, and BMO Capital Markets. The stock now carries a consensus rating of Moderate Buy with an average target price of $266.24.
• The company reported solid quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, and announced a $1.73 quarterly dividend payable August 14. That puts the annualized dividend at $6.92 per share, for a yield of about 2.8%.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) by 1.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,831,636 shares of the company's stock after selling 36,970 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.16% of AbbVie worth $615,853,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Chelsea Counsel Co. purchased a new stake in AbbVie during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Litman Gregory Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Imprint Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 56.2% in the 4th quarter. Imprint Wealth LLC now owns 125 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ABBV. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on AbbVie from $270.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. DZ Bank raised shares of AbbVie from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $258.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $266.24.

AbbVie Stock Performance

AbbVie stock opened at $248.06 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $438.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 122.20, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.30. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $184.63 and a fifty-two week high of $261.64. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $226.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $221.34.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.72 billion. AbbVie had a negative return on equity of 576.45% and a net margin of 5.79%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.46 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be issued a $1.73 dividend. This represents a $6.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 15th. AbbVie's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.

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