National Pension Service Buys 65,017 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

National Pension Service lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,416,539 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 65,017 shares during the period. AbbVie makes up approximately 0.6% of National Pension Service’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest holding. National Pension Service’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $607,119,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. DMKC Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $237,000. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 42.1% in the fourth quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 61,572 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,941,000 after acquiring an additional 18,231 shares during the period. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Longbow Finance SA raised its stake in AbbVie by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Longbow Finance SA now owns 39,265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,977,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860 shares during the period. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 186,939 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,219,000 after purchasing an additional 29,034 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ABBV shares. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $224.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Leerink Partners upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on AbbVie from $208.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.35.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This trade represents a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Perry C. Siatis sold 5,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.90, for a total transaction of $1,143,466.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 22,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,429,199.90. The trade was a 20.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of ABBV opened at $204.19 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $182.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $186.61. The company has a market cap of $360.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 85.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $153.58 and a twelve month high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a net margin of 7.59% and a return on equity of 296.28%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.79 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 273.33%.

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.