Ellis Investment Partners LLC Purchases 67 Shares of AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Ellis Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,739 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 67 shares during the quarter. Ellis Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,437,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sharp Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 5.5% in the second quarter. Sharp Financial Services LLC now owns 2,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $394,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Libra Wealth LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 3.1% in the second quarter. Libra Wealth LLC now owns 2,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $463,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Clarendon Private LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 2.1% in the second quarter. Clarendon Private LLC now owns 4,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $853,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 1.0% in the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 15,067 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,797,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prostatis Group LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 6.0% in the second quarter. Prostatis Group LLC now owns 1,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $288,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $214.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $220.00 to $251.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $231.90.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $230.88 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $407.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.94, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $214.84 and its 200 day moving average is $196.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14. AbbVie Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.81 and a 52-week high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.24 by ($0.27). AbbVie had a return on equity of 699.66% and a net margin of 6.45%.The firm had revenue of $15.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.65 earnings per share. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 312.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total value of $8,407,055.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 177,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,178,278.64. The trade was a 19.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total transaction of $2,639,190.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 58,247 shares in the company, valued at $11,562,611.97. This represents a 18.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.