ClearBridge Investments Added to Its Healthcare Exposure by Buying AbbVie (ABBV) Stock

ClearBridge Investments, a leading global asset manager, released its “Global Growth Strategy” second-quarter 2022 investor letter. You can download it here. In the second quarter, the strategy underperformed its MSCI ACWI benchmark index. The financials, materials, and consumer staples sectors contributed positively to the fund’s performance whereas  IT, Industrials, and consumer discretionary sectors were the fund’s leading detractors. You can check the fund’s top five holdings to know about its best picks in 2022.

ClearBridge Investments discussed stocks like AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the second quarter investor letter. Headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois, AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) is a pharmaceutical company. The stock of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) closed at $141.44 per share on August 17, 2022. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) returned -4.27% in one month and its shares gained 19.94% of their value over the last 52 weeks. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) has a market capitalization of $250.625 billion.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments specifically said about AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in its Q2 2022 letter.

“We added to our health care exposure in the quarter with the purchases of Straumann Holding (OTCPK:SAUHF), a Swiss manufacturer of medical instruments, implants and related supplies for dental procedures, in the secular bucket and U.S. pharmaceutical maker AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the structural bucket. Straumann is the global market leader in dental implants with 29% overall share, a meaningful position within premium implants and smaller share in value implants. The company is also involved in clear aligners through a series of acquisitions as well as peripheral capital equipment around those businesses.

Growth will come from increasing share in both value implants and clear aligners through expansion in emerging markets on top of market growth in its premium implant business. AbbVie is undergoing a transition in anticipation of loss of exclusivity for its blockbuster Humira in the next several years with several commercial therapeutics, led by Skyrizi for psoriasis and Rinvoq for rheumatoid arthritis.”

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Although ClearBridge Investments is invested in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV), the stock is not on the list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) was held by 71 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter, and 76 in the previous quarter.

We discussed AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in another article and shared Baron Funds’ views on the company. For more investor letters from hedge funds and other prominent investors, you can check our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page.

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