AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Shares Acquired by Howard Capital Management Inc.

Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,159 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,093 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $7,215,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 177,298,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,910,186,000 after purchasing an additional 3,380,842 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 39,178,351 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,240,169,000 after buying an additional 924,761 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 26,783,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,970,848,000 after acquiring an additional 1,517,222 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie during the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,288,200,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 41.8% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 9,337,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,733,222,000 after acquiring an additional 2,753,312 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $223.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday. Guggenheim increased their target price on AbbVie from $227.00 to $242.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Berenberg Bank set a $275.00 price objective on AbbVie in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, HSBC upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $225.00 to $265.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.37.

AbbVie Stock Up 1.2%

NYSE ABBV opened at $223.02 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.39 and a fifty-two week high of $244.81. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $224.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $218.24. The stock has a market cap of $394.15 billion, a PE ratio of 168.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 0.36.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The company reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.58 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 4.00% and a return on equity of 3,216.47%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.00 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About AbbVie

AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company that was created as a spin-off from Abbott Laboratories in 2013 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. The company focuses on discovering, developing and commercializing therapies for complex and often chronic medical conditions. Its operations span research and development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs and commercialization, with an emphasis on bringing specialty medicines to market across multiple therapeutic areas.

AbbVie’s product portfolio and pipeline cover several major therapeutic categories, including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, virology and women’s health.