Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Grows Stake in AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 4.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 108,257 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,211 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $22,376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in AbbVie by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 180,779,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,306,353,000 after buying an additional 3,032,438 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in AbbVie by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 80,940,931 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,494,193,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119,274 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,629,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,179,099,000 after purchasing an additional 4,190,487 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,824,399 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,900,617,000 after buying an additional 356,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth $5,865,055,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ABBV shares. Evercore set a $235.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Friday, May 15th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, March 9th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on AbbVie from $265.00 to $273.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 price target on AbbVie in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $253.81.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV stock opened at $260.88 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $220.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $220.25. The company has a market capitalization of $460.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 128.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.30. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $184.63 and a 12 month high of $261.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.72 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 5.79% and a negative return on equity of 576.45%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.28 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be paid a $1.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 15th. This represents a $6.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 340.89%.

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.