Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. Sells 21,777 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 45.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 25,779 shares of the company’s stock after selling 21,777 shares during the quarter. AbbVie makes up approximately 1.7% of Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $3,995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 89,097.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,719,514,000 after acquiring an additional 29,170,366 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AbbVie during the fourth quarter worth $3,033,348,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in AbbVie by 29,922.3% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $899,186,000 after buying an additional 6,012,281 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,102,311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,785,277 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 426.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $754,155,000 after purchasing an additional 3,768,579 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABBV has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $173.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 11th. HSBC lowered AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $167.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Raymond James upped their target price on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.43.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,375,512.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total value of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Scott T. Reents sold 14,140 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.44, for a total transaction of $2,509,001.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,065 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,802,413.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of ABBV stock traded up $0.73 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $181.08. 564,663 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,615,272. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market cap of $320.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.58. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $174.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $157.81. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.96 and a twelve month high of $182.89.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $14.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.42%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 227.11%.

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.