Hartford Financial Management Inc. Increases Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Hartford Financial Management Inc. raised its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 25,191 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 191 shares during the period. Hartford Financial Management Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $4,476,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Creekside Partners purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie during the second quarter worth about $336,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 86,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,783,000 after purchasing an additional 691 shares during the period. Mattson Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,158,000. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. increased its position in AbbVie by 5.4% during the third quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 100,915 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,929,000 after buying an additional 5,172 shares during the period. Finally, M&R Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in AbbVie by 7.5% in the third quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,447 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,248,000 after buying an additional 1,149 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were 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 $1,202,751.92. The trade was a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on AbbVie to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.00.

AbbVie Stock Performance

NYSE:ABBV opened at $175.54 on Friday. AbbVie Inc. has a twelve month low of $153.58 and a twelve month high of $207.32. The company has a market capitalization of $310.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $176.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.90.

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

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.