Sheets Smith Investment Management Buys Shares of 2,246 AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Sheets Smith Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 2,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $520,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie during the second quarter valued at $4,288,200,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of AbbVie by 18,384.4% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,705,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,059,141,000 after acquiring an additional 5,675,095 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in AbbVie by 550.9% in 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. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 1.9% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 177,298,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,910,186,000 after purchasing an additional 3,380,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter worth $581,817,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ABBV shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AbbVie in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank began coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on AbbVie from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 13th. Finally, DZ Bank lowered AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $237.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.84.

AbbVie Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of AbbVie stock opened at $227.44 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $226.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $210.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14. The stock has a market cap of $401.98 billion, a PE ratio of 172.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.36. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.39 and a 12-month high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.58 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 3,216.47% and a net margin of 4.00%.AbbVie’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.00 EPS. AbbVie has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 3.320-3.360 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.73 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. This represents a $6.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 496.97%.

About AbbVie

AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company that was created as a spin-off from Abbott Laboratories in 2013 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. The company focuses on discovering, developing and commercializing therapies for complex and often chronic medical conditions. Its operations span research and development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs and commercialization, with an emphasis on bringing specialty medicines to market across multiple therapeutic areas.

AbbVie’s product portfolio and pipeline cover several major therapeutic categories, including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, virology and women’s health.