AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Short Interest Down 8.7% in September

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 17,790,000 shares, a decrease of 8.7% from the August 31st total of 19,490,000 shares. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 5,110,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on AbbVie from $211.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, HSBC raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $191.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 282,845 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $49,497,875.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 513,099 shares in the company, valued at $89,792,325. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

A number of 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 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,605,000 after acquiring an additional 9,978,415 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake 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 last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in AbbVie by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,698,847,000 after buying an additional 992,496 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in AbbVie by 0.9% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.3 %

ABBV traded down $0.56 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $196.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,941,205 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,351,420. 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 $347.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.88, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $192.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $176.34. AbbVie has a 52-week low of $135.85 and a 52-week high of $199.95.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 203.66% and a net margin of 9.71%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.91 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that AbbVie will post 10.86 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 183.98%.

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.