Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,029 AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the first quarter valued at $646,000. Quent Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 3.3% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 8,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,592,000 after buying an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. Lavaca Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 22.5% in the first quarter. Lavaca Capital LLC now owns 7,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,384,000 after buying an additional 1,396 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 110.4% in the first quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 719,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $130,954,000 after buying an additional 377,299 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kinloch Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 7.1% in the first quarter. Kinloch Capital LLC now owns 19,065 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,472,000 after buying an additional 1,260 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Argus upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $205.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price objective for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.50.

AbbVie Trading Up 3.0 %

NYSE:ABBV opened at $176.95 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.65 and a fifty-two week high of $207.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $312.70 billion, a PE ratio of 61.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.63. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $189.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $181.17.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.95 EPS. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.71%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

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.