World Equity Group Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

World Equity Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) by 15.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,766 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,559 shares during the quarter. World Equity Group Inc.'s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,815,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Crestline Management LP raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 438.4% in the fourth quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 35,311 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,275,000 after purchasing an additional 28,753 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,367,162 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,664,489,000 after acquiring an additional 108,993 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP grew its position in AbbVie by 35.8% during the 4th quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 1,047 shares of the company's stock worth $186,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. AXA S.A. raised its position in AbbVie by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 971,893 shares of the company's stock valued at $172,705,000 after purchasing an additional 125,568 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keystone Financial Group grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Keystone Financial Group now owns 17,952 shares of the company's stock worth $3,190,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABBV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on AbbVie from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $210.00 price objective on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered AbbVie from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $194.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of AbbVie to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $211.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,832 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.08, for a total transaction of $12,359,426.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 53,234 shares in the company, valued at $11,183,398.72. This represents a 52.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of ABBV traded down $0.33 on Friday, hitting $185.16. 12,149,354 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,244,176. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $187.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.76. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $218.66. The company has a market capitalization of $327.06 billion, a PE ratio of 78.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.50.

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

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.54%. AbbVie's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.