WestHill Financial Advisors Inc. Lowers Holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

WestHill Financial Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 3.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,181 shares of the company’s stock after selling 118 shares during the quarter. WestHill Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $493,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Waterfront Wealth Inc. raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 7,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,136,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its position in AbbVie by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 68,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,606,000 after buying an additional 1,769 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in AbbVie by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 168,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,095,000 after buying an additional 11,775 shares during the last quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. raised its position in AbbVie by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 13,222 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,049,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Telos Capital Management Inc. raised its position in AbbVie by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc. now owns 51,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,940,000 after buying an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total transaction of $908,687.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,233,546.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total transaction of $908,687.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,233,546.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total value of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 383,324 shares of company stock valued at $67,780,003 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. William Blair upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Raymond James boosted their price target on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.43.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV stock traded up $2.52 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $166.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,449,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,595,890. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.96 and a 12 month high of $182.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $295.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a 50 day moving average of $175.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $159.94.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. The business had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.17 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.72%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 227.11%.

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.