Artisan Partners on AbbVie (ABBV) : “We Chose to Move On”

Artisan Partners, a high value-added investment management firm, published its “Artisan Value Fund” third quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -1.33% was recorded by its Investor Class: ARTLX, -1.28% by both its Advisor Class: APDLX, and Institutional Class: APHLX for the third quarter of 2021, all below the Russell 1000® Value Index that delivered a -0.78% return, and the Russell 1000® Index that gained 0.21% for the same period. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.

Artisan Value Fund, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) and discussed its stance on the firm. AbbVie Inc. is a Lake Bluff, Illinois-based biopharmaceutical company with a $214.5 billion market capitalization. ABBV delivered a 13.25% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 14.65%. The stock closed at $121.35 per share on December 06, 2021.

Here is what Artisan Value Fund has to say about AbbVie Inc.  in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“Our sales included Abbvie, a biopharmaceutical company. Abbvie was a smaller position in the portfolio. We had concerns about its capital allocation and a stretched balance sheet, so we chose to move on.”

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Based on our calculations, AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. ABBV was in 81 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 82 funds in the previous quarter. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) delivered an 8.72% return in the past 3 months.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.