5 Best Safe Dividend Stocks For 2023

3. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Dividend Yield as of February 14: 3.94%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 80

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) is an American publicly traded pharmaceutical company founded in 2013. Originated as a spin-off of Abbott Laboratories, it is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, frequently ranking in the global top three by revenue. On February 16, AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) declared a $1.48 per share quarterly dividend, the same as its prior dividend. The dividend is payable on May 15, to shareholders of record on April 14.

On February 10, SVB Securities analyst David Risinger upgraded AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) to Market Perform from Underperform with a price target of $153, up from $135, following management’s issuance of 2024 minimum trough earnings-per-share guidance of $10.70. The analyst believes AbbVie should exceed its conservative 2023 guidance.

According to Insider Monkey’s Q3 data, 80 hedge funds were long AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV), compared to 71 funds in the earlier quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke, and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital is a prominent stakeholder of the company, with 3.2 million shares worth $431.60 million.

Alger Capital made the following comment about AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:

“AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) is a global biopharmaceutical company that develops and markets drugs in areas such as immunology. virology and oncology. Recently, the company expanded through the acquisition of Allergan, which added robust growth assets to help offset the loss of U.S. patent protection for Humira, a leading treatment used for rheumatology, dermatology. gastroenterology, and ophthalmology. While AbbVie reported weak third quarter revenues across the board, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Vraylar (an antipsychotic treatment) in December. Despite concerns around Humira’s loss of patent protection, we believe AbbVie has significantly diversified its revenue and that its launch of Rinvog for psoriatic arthritis and atopic dermatitis could be promising.”