Billionaire Ken Griffin Increased His Position in This Dividend King by 547%

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin was in the news after he scooped up most of the public stock portfolio formerly held by Situational Awareness late last month. In what was otherwise a bad month for hedge funds, Griffin's Citadel fund rose 14% in July.

He's known for buying stocks at lower valuations and watching those investments pay off. One of those plays this year was his purchase of an additional 2.68 million shares of healthcare giant AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV). The move increased his hedge fund's exposure to the stock by 547%.

He's owned stock in the company since 2013, and his most recent purchase is already paying off. AbbVie is trading at about $260 per share, while Citadel spent an average of $214.90 per share in its most recent AbbVie buy. Here are three reasons Griffin's move makes sense for the everyday investor as well:

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AbbVie is a dependable Dividend King

The company is one of a handful of stocks that have raised its dividend for 50 or more consecutive years, making it a Dividend King. This year, AbbVie increased its quarterly dividend by 5.5% to $1.73, and it has a yield, at its current price, of about 2.8%. Counting its time as a subsidiary of Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT), AbbVie has raised its dividend for 53 consecutive years.

Since its spinoff from Abbott in 2013, AbbVie has boosted its dividend by more than 330%. The company has said it plans to keep its A2/A- credit rating and reach about two times net leverage within two to three years after closing the deal and paying down debt.

AbbVie remains a premier choice for total-return and income investors because its dividend growth is backed by widening operating margins and robust free cash flow.

It is looking past patent cliffs, like it did with Humira

AbbVie is in the process of spending $10.9 billion to buy Apogee Therapeutics (NASDAQ: APGE). The deal brings in a potential atopic dermatitis (AD) therapy in Zumilokibart.

The drug is Apogee's flagship monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-13, a cytokine linked to type-2 inflammation. Designed primarily for atopic dermatitis (AD), it also has potential for expansion into asthma and eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE).

While current biologics such as Dupixent require injections every two to three weeks to treat AD, Zumilokibart's extended three- to six-month dosing schedule could dramatically boost patient compliance and convenience. By offering a far more user-friendly alternative in a huge, underpenetrated market, Zumilokibart could capture significant market share and become a multibillion-dollar blockbuster, rivaling Dupixent, which is poised to generate roughly $21 billion in 2026 sales.

The move also improves the pharmaceutical giant's already dominant immunology portfolio. The big concern, though, is that while funding the acquisition of the biotech company, AbbVie is adding considerable debt. Investors, initially worried about the company's debt level, were wary of the stock for much of this year, but the shares have since rebounded and are up about 13% in 2026. The deal is not expected to increase adjusted earnings per share (EPS) until 2032.

The play it is making with Zumilokibart mirrors the company's strategy with immunology drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq to replace Humira: Take a validated, ultra-lucrative biological mechanism and leapfrog the incumbents on dosing convenience and efficacy.

Instead of inventing a completely unproven biological pathway to replace Humira (TNF-alpha), AbbVie targeted validated inflammatory pathways, including IL-23 with Skyrizi, and JAK with Rinvoq. AbbVie isn't guessing if the IL-13 pathway works in Zumilokibart's case. Dupixent, developed by Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) and Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN), proved it worked. Apogee, and now AbbVie, are simply applying next-generation engineering to that known pathway.

AbbVie's pipeline was strong before Zumilokibart

AbbVie spent $13.8 billion on research and development in 2025, and it shows. The company has more than 90 candidate compounds, devices, or distinct indications in clinical development, including 375 clinical-stage programs across its core therapeutic areas of immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, and aesthetics. That includes 85 to 90 phase 2 or phase 3 clinical trials.

The company's top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals this year were both oncology therapies. In February, the FDA approved a combination of Venclexta and Calquence for previously untreated adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). It is the only all-oral, fixed-duration combination regimen for frontline treatment of CLL.

In May, Decnupaz was approved to treat adults with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), an ultra-rare blood cancer. It is AbbVie's first antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) approved for a hematologic malignancy.

Beyond these approvals, the company has submitted supplemental applications for additional major line expansions, including Rinvoq for severe alopecia areata and Skyrizi for subcutaneous induction in Crohn's disease.

Look past its short-term debt concerns

Institutional investors such as Ken Griffin buy at inflection points. When AbbVie mentioned how much debt it would add to buy Apogee Therapeutics, its share price fell, though the company's fundamentals remain strong.

For retail investors, AbbVie acts as a premier total-return engine. Offering a 2.8% dividend yield, more than double the S&P 500 average, and backed by a 203% 10-year dividend growth rate, AbbVie delivers reliable income alongside capital appreciation supported by a growing pipeline.

James Halley has positions in AbbVie. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AbbVie. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.