WASHINGTON TRUST Co Increases Stock Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co increased its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 8.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,407 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,586 shares during the quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $5,177,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ABBV. Goepper Burkhardt LLC lifted its position in AbbVie by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Goepper Burkhardt LLC now owns 3,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $567,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Syntax Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Syntax Advisors LLC now owns 1,667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. First Bank & Trust boosted its stake in AbbVie by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 18,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,809,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the period. Clearwater Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Clearwater Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Founders Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 0.3% in the third quarter. Founders Capital Management LLC now owns 22,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,417,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ABBV shares. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $173.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 11th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, HSBC cut 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.43.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.6 %

AbbVie stock traded up $1.15 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $181.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,619,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,631,993. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $174.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $157.81. AbbVie Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.96 and a 1 year high of $182.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $321.37 billion, a PE ratio of 66.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.58.

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

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company 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 currently 227.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total transaction of $24,572,458.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 519,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,020,679.73. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other AbbVie news, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total transaction of $24,572,458.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 519,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $92,020,679.73. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,949 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.79, for a total value of $10,539,491.71. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 60,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,895,641.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003 in the last quarter. 0.25% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.