Empower Advisory Group LLC Has $85.95 Million Position in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Empower Advisory Group LLC reduced its stake in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 27.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 435,244 shares of the company’s stock after selling 163,171 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $85,952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in AbbVie by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in AbbVie by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110,601 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,698,847,000 after acquiring an additional 992,496 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the second 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 last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 12.8% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price for the company. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $226.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Argus raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. 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. According to MarketBeat, AbbVie currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.06.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV stock opened at $171.10 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $194.14 and a 200 day moving average of $180.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $302.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.41, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $136.30 and a 52 week high of $207.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

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