Liberty Capital Management Inc. Decreases Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Liberty Capital Management Inc. lessened its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.1% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 37,358 shares of the company’s stock after selling 429 shares during the quarter. AbbVie accounts for 1.7% of Liberty Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Liberty Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $6,803,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,747,355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,961,001,000 after acquiring an additional 1,450,089 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 44,988,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,971,796,000 after acquiring an additional 2,542,463 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 2.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 32,175,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,796,085,000 after acquiring an additional 914,485 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,451,975 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,774,569,000 after acquiring an additional 1,702,415 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,229,888,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays cut their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. HSBC raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.64.

AbbVie Stock Down 1.0 %

ABBV opened at $170.39 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.93. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $163.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $166.79. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.96 and a twelve month high of $182.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $300.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.56, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.60.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The company reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.05. AbbVie had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 179.47%. The firm had revenue of $12.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.46 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 15th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.64%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 183.98%.

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.