Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC Purchases 13,902 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC grew its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) by 136.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,090 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 13,902 shares during the quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC's holdings in AbbVie were worth $4,281,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in AbbVie by 1.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company's stock worth $15,614,329,000 after buying an additional 1,267,685 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 3.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,691,732,000 after purchasing an additional 511,470 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in AbbVie by 6.1% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 10,175,926 shares of the company's stock worth $2,009,542,000 after purchasing an additional 582,953 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in AbbVie by 4.2% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,330,779 shares of the company's stock worth $1,842,642,000 after purchasing an additional 373,802 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,202,751.92. This represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of ABBV stock traded down $2.21 on Friday, hitting $171.49. 7,581,211 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,943,678. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $153.58 and a 52 week high of $207.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.60. The firm has a market cap of $303.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.55, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is a positive change from AbbVie's previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.83%. AbbVie's dividend payout ratio is currently 215.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ABBV has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded AbbVie from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Five investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $205.50.

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.