Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA Makes New Investment in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 2,172 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $455,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 173,072,078 shares of the company's stock worth $30,754,908,000 after acquiring an additional 1,424,237 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 37,144,933 shares of the company's stock worth $6,586,948,000 after acquiring an additional 983,888 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 33,983,707 shares of the company's stock worth $6,038,898,000 after acquiring an additional 778,126 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $4,459,385,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 21,824,626 shares of the company's stock worth $3,878,236,000 after acquiring an additional 2,299,645 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $241.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set an "overweight" rating and a $210.00 price target for the company. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AbbVie to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of AbbVie from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.29.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ABBV opened at $189.50 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $187.30 and a 200 day moving average of $188.36. The stock has a market cap of $334.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.48. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.63 and a 12 month high of $218.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.46 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $12.91 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.31 earnings per share. AbbVie's revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be issued 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 3.46%. AbbVie's payout ratio is currently 279.15%.

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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