Bank of Nova Scotia Cuts Stock Position in AbbVie Inc. $ABBV

Bank of Nova Scotia trimmed its holdings in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 53.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 330,712 shares of the company’s stock after selling 385,935 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $71,927,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AbbVie during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,865,055,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in AbbVie by 457.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,536,901 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,439,714,000 after acquiring an additional 8,646,424 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 106.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,071,444 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,986,777,000 after purchasing an additional 6,736,161 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 914.6% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 5,444,930 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,244,112,000 after purchasing an additional 4,908,260 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AbbVie by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,629,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,179,099,000 after purchasing an additional 4,190,487 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on ABBV. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $260.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on AbbVie from $260.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. DZ Bank raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore set a $235.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, HSBC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, July 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.10.

Key AbbVie News

Here are the key news stories impacting AbbVie this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Canaccord Genuity raised its price target on AbbVie to $282 from $273 and reiterated a buy rating, signaling continued confidence in the company’s earnings power and pipeline. Benzinga / The Fly report
• Positive Sentiment: AbbVie’s Allergan Aesthetics unit won European Commission approval for Boey, a short-acting botulinum toxin, expanding its aesthetics portfolio and adding another growth driver outside its core immunology business. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Several commentary pieces highlighted AbbVie as a high-quality dividend stock and suggested its long-term outlook remains attractive, but that much of the optimism may already be reflected in the share price. Motley Fool article
• Negative Sentiment: Genmab and AbbVie clarified that the U.S. primary endpoint in the Phase 3 EPCORE DLBCL-1 trial was overall survival, and that endpoint was not met, which could pressure sentiment around AbbVie’s oncology franchise and the epcoritamab program. Yahoo Finance article
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst coverage also noted AbbVie’s oncology revenue may remain under pressure in Q2, as weakness in Imbruvica could offset gains from Venclexta and newer therapies. Yahoo Finance article

AbbVie Trading Up 1.4%

ABBV stock opened at $256.80 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $233.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.61. AbbVie Inc. has a 12-month low of $187.62 and a 12-month high of $261.64. The firm has a market cap of $453.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 126.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.30.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.72 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 5.79% and a negative return on equity of 576.45%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be given a dividend of $1.73 per share. This represents a $6.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 340.89%.

AbbVie Profile

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.