AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Trading Up 0.6% After Analyst Upgrade

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares shot up 0.6% on Wednesday after Guggenheim raised their price target on the stock from $212.00 to $221.00. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $206.15 and last traded at $202.99. 1,437,279 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 5,301,912 shares. The stock had previously closed at $201.68.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on ABBV. William Blair raised AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Argus raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.72.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in AbbVie by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,758,789,000 after buying an additional 3,110,601 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in AbbVie by 3.3% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,698,847,000 after buying an additional 992,496 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,382,000 after buying an additional 134,239 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 12.8% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,984,490,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.2 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. The firm has a market cap of $355.39 billion, a PE ratio of 69.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.63. The company’s 50-day moving average is $194.41 and its 200 day moving average is $180.25.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. AbbVie’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.97 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

AbbVie Company Profile

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers.