Unigestion Holding SA Trims Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Unigestion Holding SA trimmed its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 29.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 55,723 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,804 shares during the quarter. Unigestion Holding SA’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $9,902,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in AbbVie by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,566,922 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,142,000 after buying an additional 697,643 shares during the last quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 15,375 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,732,000 after acquiring an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 24.8% during the 4th quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the company’s stock worth $270,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the period. Darden Wealth Group Inc raised its position in AbbVie by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Darden Wealth Group Inc now owns 4,832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $859,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in AbbVie by 29.7% during the fourth quarter. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 277,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,312,000 after purchasing an additional 63,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $212.00 to $214.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price target (up from $218.00) on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $211.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $181.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,832 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.08, for a total value of $12,359,426.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 53,234 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,183,398.72. This represents a 52.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 5,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total value of $1,143,466.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,429,199.90. This trade represents a 20.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 113,471 shares of company stock worth $23,426,451. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Down 7.5 %

ABBV stock opened at $186.58 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a 12 month low of $153.58 and a 12 month high of $218.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $330.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $200.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $189.21.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.79 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.52%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 273.33%.

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.