West Paces Advisors Inc. Acquires 399 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

West Paces Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,153 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 399 shares during the quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie during the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. PCA Investment Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in AbbVie in the second quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 39.5% during the third quarter. Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 286 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,949 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.79, for a total transaction of $10,539,491.71. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 60,941 shares in the company, valued at $10,895,641.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total value of $9,184,047.70. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at $42,375,512.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,949 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.79, for a total transaction of $10,539,491.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 60,941 shares in the company, valued at $10,895,641.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ABBV. Guggenheim boosted their target price on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note 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. Truist Financial upped their target price on AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Raymond James increased their price target on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, HSBC lowered AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $167.00 to $156.00 in a report on Monday, December 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of ABBV traded up $0.87 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $162.54. The company had a trading volume of 4,772,207 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,663,312. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.96 and a 12-month high of $182.89. The company has a market capitalization of $287.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.91, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $176.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $159.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the business earned $3.60 EPS. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.11 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s 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.