SG Americas Securities LLC Sells 255,781 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

SG Americas Securities LLC lowered its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 72.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 97,978 shares of the company’s stock after selling 255,781 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $17,411,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Groupama Asset Managment increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 40.3% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 135,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 38,974 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in AbbVie in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie during the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 100.0% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on ABBV. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $211.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total value of $310,032.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. This trade represents a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:ABBV opened at $170.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $175.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.73. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $153.58 and a fifty-two week high of $207.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $301.15 billion, a PE ratio of 59.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.95 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.85%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 227.78%.

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.