AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 0.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) traded up 0.1% on Wednesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock to $195.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has a buy rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $167.20 and last traded at $166.66. 758,224 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 5,460,177 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.57.

Several other analysts have also commented on ABBV. Barclays increased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price for the company. William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.37.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AbbVie

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,614,329,000 after buying an additional 1,267,685 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,691,732,000 after buying an additional 511,470 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $1,984,490,000 after buying an additional 1,240,434 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in AbbVie by 13.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,744,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,956,518,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,201 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The business has a fifty day moving average of $190.25 and a 200-day moving average of $181.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $296.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.91%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 215.28%.

About AbbVie

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.