Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Buys 14,457 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 83,343 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,457 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $16,459,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 4,140.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie in the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Burkett Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 61.2% in the 3rd quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on ABBV shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group boosted their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.41.

AbbVie Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of AbbVie stock traded up $1.78 on Tuesday, hitting $176.21. 2,284,375 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,378,220. AbbVie Inc. has a one year low of $136.30 and a one year high of $207.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The company has a fifty day moving average of $194.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $180.83. The company has a market capitalization of $311.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.72%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 227.78%.

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.