AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Sold by First Manhattan CO. LLC.

First Manhattan CO. LLC. trimmed its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 606,933 shares of the company's stock after selling 10,221 shares during the quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s holdings in AbbVie were worth $107,852,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Crestline Management LP increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 438.4% in the fourth quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 35,311 shares of the company's stock worth $6,275,000 after acquiring an additional 28,753 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in AbbVie by 1.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 35.8% in the 4th quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 1,047 shares of the company's stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. AXA S.A. grew its position in AbbVie by 14.8% during the fourth quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 971,893 shares of the company's stock valued at $172,705,000 after buying an additional 125,568 shares during the period. Finally, Sky Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in AbbVie by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Sky Investment Group LLC now owns 42,715 shares of the company's stock valued at $7,590,000 after buying an additional 3,936 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ABBV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on AbbVie from $241.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $223.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AbbVie from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $194.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on AbbVie from $181.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.41.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE ABBV traded down $1.28 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $184.30. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,806,084 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,133,352. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $153.58 and a 1 year high of $218.66. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $194.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $187.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $326.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.55.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.40 by $0.06. AbbVie had a return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. The business had revenue of $13.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.91 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.31 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.56%. AbbVie's payout ratio is 279.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,832 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.08, for a total value of $12,359,426.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 53,234 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,183,398.72. This trade represents a 52.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 5,778 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total transaction of $1,143,466.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 22,381 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,429,199.90. This represents a 20.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 113,471 shares of company stock worth $23,426,451. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company's stock.

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.