AbbVie Inc. $ABBV Shares Sold by Ameritas Advisory Services LLC

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 44.2% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,441 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,874 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $2,309,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie in the first quarter valued at $1,819,154,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 550.9% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,332,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $804,116,000 after buying an additional 3,666,521 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 31.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 14,646,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,068,820,000 after buying an additional 3,519,187 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie during the second quarter worth about $581,817,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 147.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,752,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $576,800,000 after buying an additional 1,641,091 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total transaction of $2,639,190.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 58,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,562,611.97. This represents a 18.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 42,370 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.42, for a total transaction of $8,407,055.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 177,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,178,278.64. This trade represents a 19.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

NYSE:ABBV opened at $234.07 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $210.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $196.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $413.49 billion, a PE ratio of 111.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.51. AbbVie Inc. has a 1-year low of $163.81 and a 1-year high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.24 by ($0.27). The firm had revenue of $15.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.93 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 6.45% and a return on equity of 699.66%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.65 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 312.38%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ABBV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. UBS Group set a $251.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a report on Friday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $228.22.

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.