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

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares traded up 0.1% on Friday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $215.00 to $226.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $204.40 and last traded at $204.00. 730,555 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 5,311,648 shares. The stock had previously closed at $203.87.

ABBV has been the topic of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. TD Cowen raised 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. William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on AbbVie from $218.00 to $231.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value of $12,403,580.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in AbbVie in the first quarter worth about $646,000. Centric Wealth Management boosted its stake in AbbVie by 4.5% during the first quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 9,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,743,000 after buying an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in AbbVie by 1.8% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 988,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $180,052,000 after purchasing an additional 17,957 shares during the last quarter. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,359 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Resonant Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in AbbVie by 6.6% during the first quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 13,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,413,000 after purchasing an additional 823 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.81. The company has a fifty day moving average of $194.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $179.38. The company has a market cap of $359.54 billion, a PE ratio of 70.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. AbbVie’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.