AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 1.5% Following Earnings Beat

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) rose 1.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The company traded as high as $207.24 and last traded at $204.60. Approximately 2,008,164 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 62% from the average daily volume of 5,301,033 shares. The stock had previously closed at $201.50.

The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 203.66% and a net margin of 9.71%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. AbbVie’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 227.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ABBV. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Truist Financial boosted 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. UBS Group lifted their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup upped their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued 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 an average price target of $201.00.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $83,299,645.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

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

AbbVie Stock Performance

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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $194.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $179.09. The stock has a market cap of $360.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63.

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.